Educational Broadcasting 2020

Some viewers could (and probably still can?) get the so-called "BARB boxes" to contribute to the viewing figures, though realistically its probably safe to assume considering these were only issued to about 1000 homes if that and the actual "figures" reported were extrapolated from this small sample.

Of course these days its probably easier to find out what's being watched, how they're watching it and when they're watching it, but in the days of analogue TV, no real way to know for sure. Signal goes out, TV picks it up, no feedback possible.

That's still really the case with digital TV. There's no guarantee of there being a return path, although with smart TVs and set top boxes connected to the Internet it's a lot more common. I don't think any broadcasters would use that as a way of gauging ratings for linear TV though as its too hit and miss.


Different for on demand though, there the number of times something is streamed will be obvious to the provider

But the one thing a BARB box can do that no other method can is tell who is watching. Ratings are how many people are watching, not how many households. Also commercial broadcasters need to know the demographic of who's watching to sell the ad breaks. The nearest that gets to it are profiles on a service like Netflix but even there they don't know who's actually in the room at th time

Yes - but a lot of this data doesn't tell you the most useful bit of information - who is watching. (Particularly on set-top boxes and Smart TVs)

This all raises the question whether schools programmes were being watched by unemployed people, shift workers, or pensioners, or whether they were being recorded for school age children to watch at home or even for export to foreign countries

It's definitely not a luxury nowadays. If you're unemployed, they expect you to use the Internet to look for work and to record your jobsearch.

Isn't that the argument for free internet access in public libraries, plus job searches etc. are low bandwidth activities so can be carried out on a low-cost, low-data tariff on a basic phone?

Very true. Sadly there are still plenty of miserable 50+ Daily Mail types who still go round thinking that mobile phones (even just basic ones rather than the latest iPhone), microwave ovens, DVD players etc are luxuries that people on benefits should not have.

Bit of a generalising of a Daily mail reader there, age doesn't come into it does it?

I had a discussion about it yesterday and the big question is whether (many) children will actually watch the programmes. The BBC is venturing into uncharted territory by offering educational programmes relating to school subjects on a linear TV channel directly to children, as it is something that they have never done before. The official target audience for BBC Schools and Learning Zone programmes was teachers to show to children at school. They were never actively marketed to parents or children themselves. The first instance of the BBC offering educational resources relating to school subjects directly to children was Bitesize in 1998 as an internet based service, and the strategy since has been online rather than linear TV.

There are questions about whether it's a case of better be seen to be doing something even if that something has almost no positive effect, or it's the efforts which count rather than the end result.

I suppose that time will tell what the outcome will be but it's difficult to deny that the BBC has had plenty of time to market educational programmes relating to school subjects directly to parents or children themselves, even if it was simply a case of informing parents to set their video recorders back in the 1980s.

Not much information exists about the effects of the lock down on families with school age children that don't have the internet at home - or even a TV for that matter - and how they go about education.

The schedule for the first week has been released, although some shows seem to change episode each day while others remain the same, so perhaps this isn't the final schedule.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p069dk6p/2020/04/20

'They've all got widescreen tellies...'

I do wonder the logic of that sort of thinking, are you meant to get rid of your consumer electronics out the minute you become unemployed or ill?

Years ago my then flatmate lost his job and he almost didn't get housing benefit because we had a dining room... I don't know what they expected us to do with it exactly

Got to be one of the most eclectic BBC channels ever - education and snooker! It makes the original Radio 5 seem fairly normal.


Intrigued what the bitesize programmes will contain, from what I've seen EYFS (pre school reception year) isn't being covered by them, presumably that's where the Cbeebies repeats come in, although those are on every day anyway

They're not on the freeview EPG yet, presumably they will be