i agree with Sky News (without the unnecessary colour and SCREAMING;))
this channel is a public service. it costs comparitively buttons to run and further fulfills the bbc's remit to educate and inform its licence paying audience.
it could do with a new set of titles, promos and music as, if for nothing else, it would encourage all the TV Home regulars to keep up with politics and we capture every ident for weeks and weeks!
gav
ST
stickguy
On this side of the pond, our parliamentary channel, CPAC, uses its time not covering the House of Commons with documentaries, speeches (political or otherwise), or public hearings (ditto). It never goes off air. Perhaps the Beeb should consider something like this over the summer - or perhaps News 24 does the job for this?
In any case, the people of any country deserve free access to the workings of their government.
AL
alekf
We have three channels dedicated to the US Congress over here! C-SPAN, C-SPAN2 - C-SPAN3, provide coverage of the Congress but also cover news conference in their entirety, They also cover political banquets, conventions and stuff like that. They have some live programming with call-in sessions and interviews and analysis. Over the weekend C-SPAN2 has 'BookTV', television about, of course, books and authors. That's pretty boring. And it is one of the few channels on American TV that does not have ANY advertising! It's funded by taxes. They also have some continuity announcers too.
ED
EDTV
stickguy posted:
On this side of the pond, our parliamentary channel, CPAC, uses its time not covering the House of Commons with documentaries, speeches (political or otherwise), or public hearings (ditto). It never goes off air. Perhaps the Beeb should consider something like this over the summer - or perhaps News 24 does the job for this?
In any case, the people of any country deserve free access to the workings of their government.
I think CPAC is the true home of Canadian Reality TV. It sometimes films the behind-the-scenes going-ons of - say - an election night at a candidate's office, or a toned-down version of 'COPS'. Such an entertaining channel.
Stickguy and alekf is right. BBC Parliament should be doing not just Parliamentary procedings, but interviews, news conferences, etc... but then BBC Parliament would have to change its name... one suggestion would be BBC Live... or something like that... any suggestions?
KI
kingrikk
There has to be a Parliament Channel - It's the rules for having Cameras in the house of commons.
TK
terry k
It certainly used to be the case that the cameras in the house and committee rooms were physically controlled, and paid for, by a government deparment who provided the ready mixed output to the broadcasters. Thus the cost to the BBC was small.
It also means of course the BBC don't have loads of technical people working on the channel who can be redeployed to provide other material to fill the void during the summer recess.
If I am around I usually watch PMQ on a Wednesday on the channel rather than BBC2. You don't get any interuptions from the commentators and you get more of the build up to it. Same applies to the budget speech.