Surely a lot of Sport is best scheduled on BBC2, such as on weekday daytimes. Why cancel/move Doctors for example when you can cancel a load of repeats on BBC2. Similarly with early evenings as has been said
Maybe moving MOTD2 to BBC1 would make sense but I don't see much scope to a lot of BBC2's sport to BBC1 - unless some of the BBC2 sport could get dropped?
The proposal to close 6music is insane, the station is a perfect example of what the BBC should be doing - quality programming which encourages new talent and covers a ground which commercial radio cannot, which was proven with what happened to Xfm after a year on air. As well as a wonderfully eclectic music policy and giving airtime to some very good non-mainstream acts who get little to no coverage elsewhere, the quality of the speech on the station (George Lamb excluded) is by a very long distance the best of any music station in the country, with Jon Richardson, Collins & Herring and especially the brilliant Adam & Joe showing that 6music provides a home for a different form of radio comedy.
I'm a little unsure about the refocus of BBC Four as a mainly factual channel, as well. I suppose some things would find a home on BBC Two, but there's been some great new comedy output on the channel recently, such as Cowards, which I'm not sure would have been given a chance on Two, plus some very good drama over the last year or two. But given the rumours that BBC Four could have been axed entirely, I suppose it could have been worse.
I'm aware of BBC Three's importance to the independent sector so closing it isn't the flawless idea some think it to be, but I don't understand why it was so highly praised in the report. 80% of what it does is done better by the commerical sector, such as E4 which has had a brilliant last few months, and the occasional gems that it does provide (Being Human, Nighty Night, the Boosh etc) could have a home on BBC Two. If BBC Three nurtured this quality side of it's programming (even on a low budget) it could become a very good channel indeed, but instead it looks like there'll be no change in direction.
It kind of shows how small the proposed saving are - and considering 6 Music costs £10m compared to £50m for Radio 2, you'd think savings could be made elsewhere. Shocking too twice as much money is spent on CBBC compared to CBeebies, yet the latter is twice as popular.
The unions managed to discover the figure from Birmingham council (all in the public domain) - It was a peppercorn rent on a very long lease. The cost of The Mailbox is circa £3 million per year but you need to add on the cost of the drama unit and other leases which have had to be taken up - that isn't in the public domain because the BBC refuse to release the information
But what was the cost of
running
Pebble Mill compared with running the Mailbox? I've never heard that mentioned - things like grounds maintenance, heating, utilities, building repairs, canteen... everything else you need to shell out on to run a big complex like that
It was a big building, too big for what they needed even 15 years ago, even refurbished they would have had a lot of spare space going to waste
Quote:
When Salford opens, expect to see almost all drama & production moved there & proberbly a move for English regions.
Does 'English Regions' exist any more? I thought that whole department had been disbanded and the regions lumped in with the nations (Originally there was a 'Nations and Regions' directorate and under that was Wales, Scotland, N Ireland and another department in Birmingham called English Regions')
It kind of shows how small the proposed saving are - and considering 6 Music costs £10m compared to £50m for Radio 2, you'd think savings could be made elsewhere. Shocking too twice as much money is spent on CBBC compared to CBeebies, yet the latter is twice as popular.
Yeah but it not only covers a wider age group but also produces more new programming.
CBeebies covers only pre-school children so it's less easy to justify spending as much money on it. Also of course it repeats programmes lots as they can get away with that with their age group - every 3 years there's a whole new audience who hasn't seen your programmes before!
The proposal to close 6music is insane, the station is a perfect example of what the BBC should be doing - quality programming which encourages new talent and covers a ground which commercial radio cannot, which was proven with what happened to Xfm after a year on air. As well as a wonderfully eclectic music policy and giving airtime to some very good non-mainstream acts who get little to no coverage elsewhere, the quality of the speech on the station (George Lamb excluded) is by a very long distance the best of any music station in the country, with Jon Richardson, Collins & Herring and especially the brilliant Adam & Joe showing that 6music provides a home for a different form of radio comedy.
There is a parallel with the closure of GLR about 10 years ago, that in it's heyday was kinda similar to 6Music now (and a number of former GLR staff went over to 6). It was never that popular but much appreciated by those who did listen.
However I don't think management (other than those who created it and had moved on) really understood that either and they got rid of it as soon as they could, albeit in a less destructive form. The same is true of the takeover of XFM by Capital, they just didn't understand what it was that made it good in the first place
Does 'English Regions' exist any more? I thought that whole department had been disbanded and the regions lumped in with the nations (Originally there was a 'Nations and Regions' directorate and under that was Wales, Scotland, N Ireland and another department in Birmingham called English Regions')
The BBC regional operations in England are now part of BBC News, previously they were part of the now-defunct Nations and Regions set-up. The Nations were bumped up in status, the English regions were merged with the network news operation when the Nations and Regions were rejigged.
However I suspect that the English Regions management operation that was based in Birmingham, as part of Nations and Regions, still plays a significant purpose, and continues to exist and continues to be based outside London?
CBeebies covers only pre-school children so it's less easy to justify spending as much money on it. Also of course it repeats programmes lots as they can get away with that with their age group - every 3 years there's a whole new audience who hasn't seen your programmes before!
The BBC also use CBeebies to cater for the Tumble Tower demographic who are severely underserved by the rest of the BBC's output.
To be honest, I've also thought CBeebies make far too many new programmes, mainly for the reasons you give above. Most of the programmes seem very similar too.
To be honest, I've also thought CBeebies make far too many new programmes, mainly for the reasons you give above. Most of the programmes seem very similar too.
I'd imagine most of them are cheap enough to make. So it's not really viable to sell it.
I love the way that most people are jumping on a bandwagon with BBC 6 Music. Personally, I only used to listen for Stephen Merchant on Sunday afternoons and that was it.
I love the way that most people are jumping on a bandwagon with BBC 6 Music. Personally, I only used to listen for Stephen Merchant on Sunday afternoons and that was it.