The Newsroom

BBC Persian

(December 2008)

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adamcobb55
Bvsh Hovse posted:
gottago posted:
Although it's all in the planning stages, Urdu would be tax payer's money, while a Spanish and (HA!) Mandarin service would be in partnership with 'a local operation' (or that might just be the Spanish service). English programmes for exsisting African channels are also in the pipeline.

Something else to slow things down is the question of where to put the studios. WS is due to move out of Bush in 2012 so building them there would be a waste of money/time, and there's no more room in Egton wing of BH to put them there.

So anything coming up before then would have to be commercially funded, and fit into the existing facilites without a vast amount of work being done to them. I can see how more programmes like the Turkish TV bulletin would be possible, but not something much bigger.

The only thing that might strike me as possible is that a Spanish service aimed at South America (and therefore GMT -2 to GMT -4 could make use of the Persian TV facilities during its downtime.
BH
Bvsh Hovse
adamcobb55 posted:
Bvsh Hovse posted:
gottago posted:
Although it's all in the planning stages, Urdu would be tax payer's money, while a Spanish and (HA!) Mandarin service would be in partnership with 'a local operation' (or that might just be the Spanish service). English programmes for exsisting African channels are also in the pipeline.

Something else to slow things down is the question of where to put the studios. WS is due to move out of Bush in 2012 so building them there would be a waste of money/time, and there's no more room in Egton wing of BH to put them there.

So anything coming up before then would have to be commercially funded, and fit into the existing facilites without a vast amount of work being done to them. I can see how more programmes like the Turkish TV bulletin would be possible, but not something much bigger.

The only thing that might strike me as possible is that a Spanish service aimed at South America (and therefore GMT -2 to GMT -4 could make use of the Persian TV facilities during its downtime.


Something I hadn't considered, was if it were commercially funded then it could be a partnership with BBC World. This would open up a lot more possibilites in terms of facilities, and distribution.
NG
noggin Founding member
Bvsh Hovse posted:

Something I hadn't considered, was if it were commercially funded then it could be a partnership with BBC World. This would open up a lot more possibilites in terms of facilities, and distribution.


Not hugely - I can't see any more studios being built at TV Centre when they will be moving out in a couple of years (well 3-4)

Suppose the old BBC World studio - currently mothballed (but used recently for the US Elections I believe) could be pressed into service - but that would presumably only be the case for a non World Service service?
SE
seamus
The problem with an Urdu service is that it is so similar to Hindi, that it's mutually intelligible. They might as well take advantage of that. The only (major) problem is that Hindi uses Devanagari, and Urdu uses a variant of the Arabic script.
CO
cortomaltese
seamus posted:
The problem with an Urdu service is that it is so similar to Hindi, that it's mutually intelligible. They might as well take advantage of that. The only (major) problem is that Hindi uses Devanagari, and Urdu uses a variant of the Arabic script.


Plus, I suppose a Hindu audience wouldn't be very willing to watch a channel in Urdu and the same for a Pakistani audience with programmes in Hindi.
BH
Bvsh Hovse
noggin posted:
Bvsh Hovse posted:

Something I hadn't considered, was if it were commercially funded then it could be a partnership with BBC World. This would open up a lot more possibilites in terms of facilities, and distribution.


Not hugely - I can't see any more studios being built at TV Centre when they will be moving out in a couple of years (well 3-4)


Same problem WS has, assuming the content is produced from London. I was thinking of an upgrade of one of the shared News/WS bureaux around the world. How much of an upgrade is required depends on how many hours of programming they plan on producing. While Urdu sounds like a full TV service like Persian/Arabic, the other languages mentioned are likely to be closer to the packaged programmes for syndication model of Turkish TV.

I am genuinely surprised by the announcement of so many additional languages though. I've heard so many rumours about who's the next language to get TV over the past 4 years, and the only one I thought credible was Urdu or Hindi. I guess the Turkish bulletin has proven that anything is possible, even for a small language service with limited facilities.
GO
gottago
Bvsh Hovse posted:
noggin posted:
Bvsh Hovse posted:

Something I hadn't considered, was if it were commercially funded then it could be a partnership with BBC World. This would open up a lot more possibilites in terms of facilities, and distribution.


Not hugely - I can't see any more studios being built at TV Centre when they will be moving out in a couple of years (well 3-4)


Same problem WS has, assuming the content is produced from London. I was thinking of an upgrade of one of the shared News/WS bureaux around the world. How much of an upgrade is required depends on how many hours of programming they plan on producing. While Urdu sounds like a full TV service like Persian/Arabic, the other languages mentioned are likely to be closer to the packaged programmes for syndication model of Turkish TV.

I am genuinely surprised by the announcement of so many additional languages though. I've heard so many rumours about who's the next language to get TV over the past 4 years, and the only one I thought credible was Urdu or Hindi. I guess the Turkish bulletin has proven that anything is possible, even for a small language service with limited facilities.
Do you have any idea how successful the Turkish TV programme has been? I'm guessing it's been going ok since the show is still being produced?
NG
noggin Founding member
Presumably there is also a very strong argument that TV/Web services are becoming more significant ways of reaching audiences as the technology develops and audiences consume their local media in TV/Web form, and wish to view the BBC services in the same way? As the world develops, some territories where once radio and newspapers were the only major news sources are now turning to the TV/web.

That said - it is important not to think that EVERYONE is ditching radio - I know that there is significant concern that FM partnerships and web streaming are not filling the gaps left by cessation of SW radio services.

It will be interesting to see if DRM (digital shortwave and AM standards) takes the place of analogue short wave (though again this favours some territories more than others - particularly as digital radios usually consume a LOT more energy than analogue models.

As ever it is a balancing act.

TV is no longer as expensive to produce and distribute as it once was - but equally it is still a more expensive and takes more people to produce than radio can.
FF
FactorFiles
While we wait for David Lowe to update his website, which will presumably include his new work for BBC Persian, I've pieced together an MP3 of the full version of the BBC Persian TOTH Countdown. At the risk of totally overloading my server, here it is for you all:

BBC Persian Countdown MP3

I've also laid this down against the countdown from the Launch:

http://www.factorfiles.com/BBC/BBCPersianLaunch.flv

EDIT: David Lowe has just updated his site, but there isn't any content from BBC Persian on there at all Sad
CO
cortomaltese
Thank you!
ZS
ZiggyShadowDust
Lots of huggles for you Jarrod! Very Happy
BB
BBC LDN
That's a great addition to the BBC News themes - very pacey, and well connected with the visuals.

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