BBC axe Crimewatch

it was a comment made in jest, Cando and everything I've written is just an opinion/speculation (like 99% of the stuff on here).

From my own experiences, from the way technology is evolving, I see big changes in the way in which we will consume content and entertainment over the next few years.

I accept that linear and linear multi channel are going to be around for a long time yet, but really, linear multi channel is the forerunner to true video on demand, and it might even be in 20 or 30 years, but I just can't imagine a lot of the stuff we talk about now will even exist then - in particular i'm talking about the reassuring little voice of a continuity announcer sitting in a booth live, reading a script - all that seems a hangover from the radio days that got carried over into tv, the presentation and slides we talk about seem an odd concept in the era of youtube etc.

all the shows on my list were from the bbc and i wonder what the bbc will look like in 20 years time too - over the last couple of decades it's been slowly dismantled, forced by successive governments to privatise, subsidise and make efficiency savings - it certainly isn't the behemoth it was - it's more of a shell which outsources nearly everything it does and it's a real shame.

One thing to remember, though: May people do switch over, they just don't do it all at the same time, so the ratings at any given hour aren't that high. The monthly reach is probably a better indication of a news channel's value than its ratings.

Sounds like someone very closed to other people's life and faith. Shame to be so closed minded.

And Christianity is supposed to be open minded?

Would you support other major religions having dedicated programmes on BBC television? If so which ones would you choose?

Whichever would upset the Daily Mail most.

The BBC and ITV grew up in the analogue era which resulted in their original channels being multi-genre. Now that analogue has been switched off and many digital channels are available for them plus internet TV then an opportunity exists for them to completely reorganise and reallocate where individual programmes are broadcast. Popular entertainment could easily be shunted off BBC1 and so could national news.

No I wouldn't support other religions having programmes week in and week out on the BBC (although the BBC does through other outlets such as BBC Asian Network), but the BBC have a responsibility to broadcast programmes which reflect national life which includes Christians and other acts of worship especially for elderly and housebound who can't leave their homes.

So elderly and housebound Muslim license fee payers don't have the right to the same service?

Religious programmes on BBC and ITV channels are a very fraught subject due to a combination of the demographic make up of the nation and England having a national religion that is declining in terms of active membership and influence in the public sphere. The fact that many religious (mostly Anglican) programmes have low viewing figures and amongst the poorest ratings of all programmes further complicates the situation. I have written a few articles about the subject.

it's an argument which applies to any minority - and of course a completely valid one.

problem is that you end up on a road of infinite regress.

for example, where is the regular sunday teatime programme which caters for the hypothetical housebound pantheist, who is also a licence fee payer?

and who decides when a 'minority' is too much of a 'minority' to cater for?

which brings us on to how do you even start to define a minority... is it an absolute number? a percentage? or some other non-numerical measure?

This isn’t a new idea, back when digital switchover was on the horizon there was talk on here that in the future there wouldn’t be need for certain genres of programming to be on the main channels anymore.

One of these has come true, children’s programming from CBBC and CITV has moved full time to their own standalone channels.

I’m not sure it would happen with news at the moment. As noggin said the BBC News channel in particular was under threat a couple of years ago, and was close to being merged with World, though that didn’t come to pass.

With ITV not having their own dedicated news channel anymore, I’m not sure how you would go about it with that.

I’m curious how you would deal with something like Channel 4 News, which is aimed at a different kind of news viewer than the mainstream BBC/ITV bulletins. If there was a hypothetical ITN news channel, with the mainstream ITV-style bulletin at 6.30, would you have a rebranded version of the current 4 News bulletin at 7 directly after?

The one news bulletin I do wonder about nowadays is 5 News. Is there anyone who specifically tunes into that anymore? I think more, shorter news updates and summaries would be better.