BBC director general Tony Hall warns of threat to British TV

What sort of TV programmes should Britain be producing more of, and why?

Ones that get the budget back, plus more, and shows that play well to the home crowd, and rack up the overseas rights/format or local version sales.

Programmes that feature a lot of fish and sealife, for example.

Chances of another series of Go Fishing with Jack Charlton seem a little remote, sad to say...

Gogglebox, The Graham Norton Show, The Crown, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, Downton Abbey, Sherlock, Peaky Blinders, Top Gear, BBC News, Planet Earth, Planet Earth II & any wildlife show made from Sir David Attenborough, Game of Thrones, Children in Need, Red Nose Day & Ms Brown's Boy's are all strong & credible shows or formats that have been critical hits watched by audiences.

Even though this content is not all made or produced by the BBC. That is a lot of top notch content there to keep the masses happy. Sir Tony Hall is now becoming worried about British TV's assumed lack of hit content now having to do more work to keep itself healthy? What is he worried about to begin with?

Are the public fed up with too much BBC repeats on a regular basis while they watch BBC programmes or something?

Game of Thrones is not a British show.

Not sure why you are including Red Nose Day and Comic Relief in this. Whilst leaving out shows like Britain’s Got Talent and Strictly.

Isn't it made in Northern Ireland and co-produced by Sky? So I'd say it's at least partially british.

Nothing to do with Sky as far as I can see. The fact that some of its locations are in the UK doesn't make it British, you wouldn't call Lord of The Rings a New Zealand film.


It's where the money comes from and where the production is created which determines the nationality. Father Ted is a good example - Irish actors and writers and non studio shots filmed in Ireland..... but it was commissioned and paid for by a British TV company and conceived, written, planned and produced in London by a British production company. Because of that it's a British show. Same with Mrs Browns Boys too

More that can be sold abroad, to compete with the stuff coming from the US and our big international hits are gradually ending, or are so infrequently made. Of course we need 'local' stuff too, but without competing against the likes of Game of Thrones British TV will deminish on the world stage

Which countries should Britain be selling TV programmes to? How easy will it be to sell TV programmes that are (theoretically) popular in a particular foreign country but have limited appeal in Britain?

To a certain extent I see parallels between TV programmes and food products.

Which countries doesn't matter, and if you look at the number of broadcasters British programmes get sold to that isn't really a problem.


I'm not sure I follow, surely it's the other way round - programmes that are popular here but have appeal abroad too. If they're not popular here they won't get made or recommissioned in the first place


Yes I suppose so. Some food products are very British but foreigners don't get them and some are popular here and are universally popular

I'm wondering whether there is untapped potential in certain countries that are not currently significant markets.



It's common for manufacturing companies to produce products for foreign markets that have a limited appeal or a very low consumer demand in the home market.

It still makes a significant contribution to the British TV industry though. All the resources used would be contracted to British companies, and many of the talents behind the scenes are also British.