noggin's posts, page 49

The BBC under threat from the government

Yes - that's why a move away from a licence fee to another arms length funding system works, and is being used in other countries. The era of basing the funding on ownership of a specific piece of receiving equipment for just one of the forms of service that the BBC provides is going to be difficult to justify in the future.

However the benefits of a popular public service broadcast service are very easy to argue. BBC One is the most popular TV channel in the UK and also has the most watched news output of any broadcaster in the UK. Those two things are linked - and that is a public service.



If you remove the popular stuff from the PSB channel, you ghetto-ise the PSB.

That's why other European countries have specifically NOT gone to a mixed subscription/taxation model - they know any PSB that only shows what is tightly defined as 'PSB' content (whatever that is) is not a good idea for ensuring widespread audiences of public service content...

Popular shows on public service channels keep public service viewing at a decent level (which is the point of them being public service).

Saturday Night Takeaway 2020

Talang - 'Sweden's Got Talent' - had no studio audience this weekend. It was different - but still watchable.

The BBC under threat from the government

That only complicates an equipment licence - which other European countries are moving away from. If you move to a 'public service' funding model the accepts the public value of a PSB then that's not a major issue.

I think that's a route to PSB ghetto, which would potentially mean the public services provided were only those the market did not. That would be a recipe for disaster, and the public - and then politicians - would probably question the value of the core public service.

If you only did Newsnight and didn't do Top Gear, only did Sunday Politics and didn't do Strictly - you'd have a lot of people asking questions...

Plus commercial funding would cannibalise the advertising revenue for other public service broadcasters - ITV, C4 and C5.



Not everyone agrees. I think both the German and Swedish models have some merit - and both were triggered by an acceptance that general public service broadcasters (not narrow 'what the market doesn't provide') are good for national life, and that access to services is on so many devices, it makes no sense to tie payment for them to a single device type.

The BBC under threat from the government

Sweden has a personal 'Public Service' fee - which is a payment of 1% of your income (capped at SEK 1300 annually) for all income tax payers (so those on lower incomes don't pay).

It is a per person payment, not a household payment (so a married couple both pay separately I believe, as do adult kids living at home if they are tax payers) and is used to fund SR (Sveriges Radio - the equivalent of BBC Radio), SVT (Sveriges Television - the equivalent of BBC TV) and UR (an educational broadcaster). Those earning SEK 13600/month or less pay a reduced fee.

That's one option.

I believe Germany has a household tax of €17.50/month (I think) that is payable irrespective of whether you own a TV or a Radio. People who receive state aid benefits and live alone are exempt. That money goes to ARD and ZDF etc. to fund public TV and Radio. €210/year per household. (More than the UK TV licence, and in a country with a larger population)

That's another option.

Neither of them are general taxation - and both insulate the broadcasters from political meddling in a similar way to the licence fee, and in a way that funding through general taxation doesn't.

Let's Talk

And Wogan was early evening, rather than late at night. It was in a similar slot to The One Show. (The One Show manages to be a daily chat-based show - but is very different to the US late night talk shows, and rates higher than any of the other chat shows like Norton or Ross)

Saturday Night Takeaway 2020

Precisely this.

NOW TV

What platform are you watching on? Laptops, Desktops, Tablets and Phones will be 60Hz usually, so will show 10Hz micro juddering on 50Hz motion as one frame in 5 will be repeated to get from 5 frames to 6, and thus from 50->60Hz. (It may also be possible for you to configure a NowTV box to output 60Hz, not 50Hz, too?)

If you are watching at 50Hz and still seeing judder, then that suggests they may have issues in deinterlacing their 1080i25 sources to 720p50 or 1080p50. (The nature of interlace on 50Hz native content is that there is motion between the two fields within an interlaced frame - and you have to trade-off vertical resolution with >25Hz motion in the deinterlacing process. Some adaptive deinterlacers can fail nastily in some situations.)

The Sky News Thread

It makes perfect sense if the reporter in question is working to multiple outlets in NBH. It's a lot quicker to switch a remote contribution position between studios.

In the case of interviews carried out by business presenters (who seem to be tied to catwalk presentation) it also solves the problem of having to do a standing 1+1, or doing two studio interviews back-to-back without having to do quick seat changes.

In boring TV grammar terms, interviewing someone from the newsroom also has an implication that they are 'staying across the story' and reporting from where they work. TV News presentation is still story telling after all...

Coronavirus | Television News Coverage

I think you may be misunderstanding the quarantine implemented in Northern Italy. AIUI the quarantine is for the whole region - restricting travel in and out of that region. I've not seen reports of people without symptoms or exposure to other confirmed Covid-19 cases being told to self quarantine.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51787238

They are restricting movement of people into and out of the region to attempt to restrict the spread of it to other areas of Italy. However, within the region people can continue to move around - they aren't under house arrest or confined to their homes, though obviously people will be taking personal decisions about how to live their lives at the moment.

Eurovision 2021 - Netherlands - NPO/AVROTROS/NOS

The shake up of the app voting seems to have worked this year on Melodifestivalen. Splitting the app votes into age groups, ditching SMS voting, and putting the phone votes into a group of their own that has the same weighting as just one of the age bracket app voting groups seems to have balanced things a bit.

(There was a feeling that the contest voting was being dominated by 'the youngsters' since app voting arrived - which was good for the Swedish local music industry, but less good for choosing an act that is phone voted for across Europe by all age ranges)

Freeview Play coming to Android TV

It gets a bit easier if you plug a keyboard in - as that makes the Google Play store (which is available on Android TV - but only shows Android TV-specific apps) much neater to use.

I ignore it on my Sony Android TV TV because the Sony TVs are so underpowered (same reason I disabled YouView on the TV).

However on the nVidia Shield TV it works pretty well.

BBC News: Presenters, correspondent & rotas

They are two different jobs. There are people who are good at both, some are better at one than the other, and some bring the skills of one to the other.

Bulletin presenting often needs writing skills, will include editorial involvement in running order decisions, pre-discussion and pre-briefing reporters about two-ways etc., and in many cases a degree of production journalism.

Continuous news presenting requires the ability to ad lib fluently and at length, conduct longer interviews in a breaking news environment, and to absorb new information whilst speaking live on-air. It also often requires the ability to sight read autocue clearly (even when not written that well...)