DA
I've kind of been ignoring this story for the past week or so because the big headlines "6 Music and Asian to close, 7 to rename etc." didn't really interest me that much. Now that the report has been officially released there are a couple of interesting points to discuss.
This page and this page are where I am quoting from.
Extending CBBC finishing time until 9pm.
Where will the bandwidth for this come from? DSat will probably be fine if the BBC throw enough money at it but Freeview may have more problems. CBBC can't go beyond 7pm at the moment because it shares bandwidth with BBC 3 or 4 (I forget which). Do we think one of these channels will start at 9pm to make room for CBBC? The report also mentions reduction of entertainment and comedy on BBC Four so this could be linked, it doesn't say what the entertainment and comedy will be replaced by so it could just mean that BBC Four has fewer hours on air. Unless by closing down two radio stations they hope to have enough bandwidth for an additional TV channel, it seems unlikely though.
The BBC's commercial arm will move away from publishing magazines in the UK.
bbc.co.uk are saying there will be a "possible loss of magazines such as Top Gear, Radio Times and Gardeners' World." Losing the Radio Times seems like quite a big thing to come out of this. I wonder if we would notice any difference though. I would imagine BBC World would either sell the brand or another publisher would see the gap in the market and release a magazine very similar to the Radio Times in all but name.
Release of the entire BBC programme library to the public.
I wonder what form this will take. The legal issues surrounding this must be huge and I doubt it can ever happen, can it? Even some programmes made by the BBC still have rights issues, let alone co-productions and some of the more controversial stuff.
This page and this page are where I am quoting from.
Extending CBBC finishing time until 9pm.
Where will the bandwidth for this come from? DSat will probably be fine if the BBC throw enough money at it but Freeview may have more problems. CBBC can't go beyond 7pm at the moment because it shares bandwidth with BBC 3 or 4 (I forget which). Do we think one of these channels will start at 9pm to make room for CBBC? The report also mentions reduction of entertainment and comedy on BBC Four so this could be linked, it doesn't say what the entertainment and comedy will be replaced by so it could just mean that BBC Four has fewer hours on air. Unless by closing down two radio stations they hope to have enough bandwidth for an additional TV channel, it seems unlikely though.
The BBC's commercial arm will move away from publishing magazines in the UK.
bbc.co.uk are saying there will be a "possible loss of magazines such as Top Gear, Radio Times and Gardeners' World." Losing the Radio Times seems like quite a big thing to come out of this. I wonder if we would notice any difference though. I would imagine BBC World would either sell the brand or another publisher would see the gap in the market and release a magazine very similar to the Radio Times in all but name.
Release of the entire BBC programme library to the public.
I wonder what form this will take. The legal issues surrounding this must be huge and I doubt it can ever happen, can it? Even some programmes made by the BBC still have rights issues, let alone co-productions and some of the more controversial stuff.