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BBC cuts jobs / Charter renewal

1,000 people may leave the BBC (July 2015)

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RI
Rijowhi
It's not just the BBC... .

I have to agree with some of the points above regarding Sport rights. As I've stated elsewhere recently I feel ITV should automatically have SOME of major, viable Sports rights in exchange for more Public Service Broadcasting programming such as full sub-Regional News and non-animation British made Children's programming ( along with the scrapping of the Contract Rights Renewal agreement etc ). I'm not sure if the same argument applies to Channel 4 as it's suppose to be an alternative to the mainstream programming of the BBC and ITV*. With new owners in Viacom, Channel 5 may also now also be in a position to buy viable Sports rights currently controlled by the BBC. Then there is the likes of Sky's Pick TV if you must...

I don't believe the 'privilege' of the BBC will convince organisations to keep their Sports with them if the price is not right (as posted by someone earlier in the thread). If the BBC loses FTA Sports rights, there will be some that the commercial PSB's will gladly take control of. This could actually help the BBC by keeping costs down while allowing them to broadcast less popular/expensive Sports, hopefully helping them gain an audience.

* ( though if C4 is privatised I feel ITV should be offered the corporation first as it could still be British owned, ITV and C4 already have shared history and it would allow the larger group to compete more with multi-national Media groups with both the main stations of C4/ITV keeping major PSB responsibilities. The combined group may control much of the TV advertising market but it can be argued other groups have larger backers... )
DO
dosxuk
Rijowhi posted:
I don't believe the 'privilege' of the BBC will convince organisations to keep their Sports with them if the price is not right (as posted by someone earlier in the thread).


It's not the "'privilege' of the BBC" - it's the 'privilege' of access to Free-To-Air, universal coverage, which only the BBC, ITV, C4 & C5 can provide. The only difference between the BBC and those others is that they aren't directly spending our money, so their choices on what rights to bid for don't need to be justified as much (and indeed, can be justified in terms of increasing their income - which isn't the case for the BBC).
BR
Brekkie
As much as you think the privilege should be paid for it's unlikely to happen. The only thing I could see happening, which would almost certainly never be permitted by the BBC, is the sports sponsors contributing to a free to air bid based on the value they gain from the extra exposure.

Sadly it's the smaller sports who sometimes have to cough up - I think up until they landed the full exclusive rights that C4 were paid to cover racing for example.
DO
dosxuk
Brekkie posted:
As much as you think the privilege should be paid for it's unlikely to happen.


The simple answer is to award rights by beauty-contest rather than who's-offering-the-most-cash. The FTA broadcasters, and the BBC in particular, would stand up well to any subscription based broadcaster in a beauty contest that not only takes into account what money is on the plate, but also how that broadcaster will promote the sport, the audience who will be able to see the events, and the quality of what will be broadcast.

If the sports are only interested in the cash, then I don't believe sport is that essential to the BBC that they should be forking out the sorts of amounts that the commercial providers are willing to offer. It's not about paying for any sort of privilege, it's acknowledging that the BBC has to play by different rules to the rest of the broadcasters in this country.
SW
Steve Williams
Maaixuew posted:
- Merge the CBBC Channel and CBeebies. CBeebies could potentially feature as a strand within the Children’s BBC channel, rather than as two separate channels. This merger would also provide substantial savings, as only one operation would be required to run the channels and not two separate ones, and yet the CBeebies branding would be preserved.


The highest rated programmes on CBeebies are all after 5pm. The highest rated programmes on CBBC are all after 5pm. Which takes priority?
BA
bilky asko
Maaixuew posted:
Some ideas:

- Merge BBC Hull and BBC Leeds and provide a Hull opt-out from Leeds. The Hull region was heavily invested in around 2003/4 to justify 'project Hull', a £24m development which was originally supposed to house a local television service, in partnership with telecoms provider Kingston Communications. This service, known as 'KIT' was subsequently retired in 2006 and Queen's Gardens, the BBC's Hull headquarters (HQ), was left with office space and a very expensive lease.

The Hull region itself is catering for very differing demographics between East Yorkshire/Hull and Northern Lincolnshire. As the region's HQ is based in Hull, viewers in Lincolnshire could argue the news is Hull-centric, and viewers would no doubt rather receive news in their own region. Many people feel that the Look North EY&NL programme struggles for news as the region is so small, and often cannot access the news that is local to them from surrounding areas such as York and Scarborough, as these areas are served by different regions.

Another option to consider could be the BBC moving into a small industrial unit/office near to the Humber bridge (there are some newly built). This would provide a radio studio and TV opt location and be handy for the satellite trucks - at a much lower price than the present city centre lease. The money saved from duplication of non-broadcast staff and comfy offices would give a good cost saving and enable a wide range of stories on-screen.


Scarborough is right on the edge of the Leeds Look North region. The last thing they need is for even more areas added to the region to ensure Scarborough stories don't get shown.

Also, Scarborough and York are both around 40 miles away from Hull. They're about as local to each other as Scarborough is to Redcar
IN
Interceptor
The issue of sports rights is one which the BBC will have to play a long game on. If they withdraw from bidding then in the short-medium term they will certainly loose content. It'll be the second or third round of renewal subsequent to that before change will happen.


Brekkie posted:
Sadly it's the smaller sports who sometimes have to cough up - I think up until they landed the full exclusive rights that C4 were paid to cover racing for example.

How terrible that must have been for those poor bookmakers.
IN
Interceptor
Steve Williams posted:
Maaixuew posted:
- Merge the CBBC Channel and CBeebies. CBeebies could potentially feature as a strand within the Children’s BBC channel, rather than as two separate channels. This merger would also provide substantial savings, as only one operation would be required to run the channels and not two separate ones, and yet the CBeebies branding would be preserved.


The highest rated programmes on CBeebies are all after 5pm. The highest rated programmes on CBBC are all after 5pm. Which takes priority?

Change that. Move 'prime' programming to have its first outing on iPlayer weeks/months ahead of the first airing.

It's not rocket science, they've done the same before when running down their BBC One/Two coverage.
SW
Steve Williams
Maaixuew posted:
- Merge BBC Hull and BBC Leeds and provide a Hull opt-out from Leeds.

The Hull region itself is catering for very differing demographics between East Yorkshire/Hull and Northern Lincolnshire. As the region's HQ is based in Hull, viewers in Lincolnshire could argue the news is Hull-centric, and viewers would no doubt rather receive news in their own region. Many people feel that the Look North EY&NL programme struggles for news as the region is so small, and often cannot access the news that is local to them from surrounding areas such as York and Scarborough, as these areas are served by different regions.


The last sentence could apply to numerous other regions, the region is no smaller in terms of population and the amount of news generated than other regions like the South East and South West (Hull, Lincoln, Grimsby and Scunthorpe is comparable to Plymouth, Truro, Exeter and Weymouth). And coming from Wrexham, that town is ostensibly served from Cardiff but has more in common with Chester and Liverpool. If you're at the edge of a region that's always going to happen.

I also don't know how you'd get it to work with "a Hull opt" because the reason the region is the shape it is is because Belmont covers East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, so any Hull opt is going to be broadcast to Lincolnshire anyway. At least Lincolnshire stories are getting on, if they were part of a bigger region there would clearly be less of them. And the savings would be totally minimal because you've still got the newsgathering and so on, only you're making less use of it.
London Lite and Manxy gave kudos
TR
TROGGLES
Steve Williams posted:
Maaixuew posted:
- Merge BBC Hull and BBC Leeds and provide a Hull opt-out from Leeds.

The Hull region itself is catering for very differing demographics between East Yorkshire/Hull and Northern Lincolnshire. As the region's HQ is based in Hull, viewers in Lincolnshire could argue the news is Hull-centric, and viewers would no doubt rather receive news in their own region. Many people feel that the Look North EY&NL programme struggles for news as the region is so small, and often cannot access the news that is local to them from surrounding areas such as York and Scarborough, as these areas are served by different regions.


The last sentence could apply to numerous other regions, the region is no smaller in terms of population and the amount of news generated than other regions like the South East and South West (Hull, Lincoln, Grimsby and Scunthorpe is comparable to Plymouth, Truro, Exeter and Weymouth). And coming from Wrexham, that town is ostensibly served from Cardiff but has more in common with Chester and Liverpool. If you're at the edge of a region that's always going to happen.

I also don't know how you'd get it to work with "a Hull opt" because the reason the region is the shape it is is because Belmont covers East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, so any Hull opt is going to be broadcast to Lincolnshire anyway. At least Lincolnshire stories are getting on, if they were part of a bigger region there would clearly be less of them. And the savings would be totally minimal because you've still got the newsgathering and so on, only you're making less use of it.


Calendar manage a perfectly good news opt at a fraction of the cost of His Levyships programme. What would make sense is to have a sat van in Lincoln and move the Hull operation to a cheaper industrial unit - there are some very nice ones near the Humber bridge with attractive move in deals - and loose the very expensive and underused set up at Queenies court. The HLRP for Hull & Leeds is based in Leeds so Hull isn't a region as such anyway. When Harry retires his Levyness could take over - placating the blue rinses - and no one would really notice. Hull/Lincs segment could be pre-recorded as per Calendar East.
AN
Andrew Founding member
The region's that have the modern large facilities from the previous lavish era could possibly think about moving.

The region's that I talking about are those that moved to high profile city centre locations and had Internet cafes, BBC Shops, BBC Buses etc. There is little point in having a high profile shop front if the shop front is closed to the public.

Hull, Norwich and Birmingham are the ones that immediately spring to mind.
RS
Rob_Schneider
Coventry too. Now why can't Coventry co-lo with WM? Free Radio and Touch FM are both co-located with their stablemates. If the commercials can do it, why not the Corporation? If you really need it, have a small contrib nooth somewhere like a public library. However, I don't believe that it's necessary anymore for a station - TV or Radio - to be right in the heart of its TSA. It's the content people tune in for.

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