Only the BBC could have a show that is generating through various aspect of the franchise, over 100 million every year, then NOT fund the show to continue pushing said various aspect of the franchise and continue to guarantee that 100 million plus ever year, i mean talk about shooting your prize winning race horse in the leg at the starting gate. Lol Or maybe Bargain hunt is bring in more. Lol
90 million viewers! That means even the best debut of the new series in the UK is only seen by 1/9 of the overall audience.
^^The BBC cannot use licence fee money directly to fund it's commercial arm, but it can commit commercial activities through its four subsidares, so the BBC uses the TV licence fee to make the programmes, then via one of their four commercial arm's, say the most well known one, BBC worldwide, it sells said programms and any aspects of its BBC copyright and IP, so DVD, boxsets, merch and the likes, and from those sales it generates revenue, which it is then allowed to reinvest into the BBC and programming and can be used to suppliment the income from the licence fee, but here is the weird part, Who might bring in all lot of money, but the BBC do not have to fund any Who from said reinvested money, which for me is just strange because why would you not want to fund one of the shows that is helping to bring more cash into the BBC, i mean i dare say a lot of the money generated from the Who licence alone must go a good way to the show actually paying for itself so some extent.
I also like the analogy of how a successful college football program funds a lot other activities at the university. These are things that would not otherwise receive funding but are very worthy. I'm sure the same is true with DW and the BBC funding. However, there is something to keep in mind. Universities are well aware of the revenue the their football teams bring in. Consequently, they schedule a full football season each and every year in order to ensure that revenue stream. The BBC would be smart to learn from this!
But it is funded. Just not as rapidly as you might like. But it is funded. And they make other things besides Doctor Who. So.
And wasn't the cake show and Top Gear--when it was the other guys-- more successful than Doctor Who worldwide? Not sure. But, if so, shouldn't they fund those shows OVER Doctor Who, if the logic is to always fund and fund well the "breadwinner."
The main reason i have almost evey single restoration dvd, then everyday is a Who day, as it should be. Lol
Ha! Shocking news! But, seriously, the point is that regular production of DW will bring in more revenue, which actually provides them with the financial resources to make more things that are not DW! It's a have your cake and eat it situation. More DW and more other things.
Hm. Makes one wonder why they haven’t thought of that... ...or maybe they have and there are reasons we aren’t privy to. They are, after all, the ones with production experience with the BBC and we don’t. If it was as simple as “just produce more Who” wouldn’t they do that?
I'm sure they thought of it. I'm pretty sure that they'd like to do that. But, for whatever reason, they haven't been able to do it. I'm guessing excessive amounts of politics combined with short sightedness! You get into resource distribution and you'll often run into those problems. Hard to say though. To spell out my point, yes, they haven't been able to do it, but it something they should endeavor to do.
Transparency has always been one of the BBC's major issues, they want to be run by a public tax fund yet seem to run the BBC like a private company, hence even now the public getting information from them is like getting blood from a stone, and they are by charter supposed to be leading the industry in transparency, hence why we are sitting here trying to guess how the BBC do things. Lol
I don't live in the UK but basically the public is paying for it, right? Transparency should be a thing for them!
Sure. And I’m sure they reveal what is legally mandated. But how much transparency should they provide? Should they provide a transcript for the negotiations between the BBC and an actor? Staff meeting notes? The menu in the canteen?
Yeap, should be being the important word phrase here, but as you already stated the BBC is a political beast grown from over 80 years of doing what they want, that is why there is still so much push back from them, they just want to continuing to be funded by the public and get annual licence fee increases with no questions asked, and when a question is asked you would think it was a state secret, i mean it took up until 2017 before the public were allowed to see how the BBC was spending the tv licenve fee in detail, when it was then found out to be spending just over half on creating radio and tv programs, so it was no surprise they fought tooth and nail against being forced to release such info to the public.
Intentionally exaggerating my point doesn't help you make my point. Public entities should be transparent. Shoot, in the U.S., many (most?) government salaries are known things. Of course, my point was only that it's in the BBC's own interest to get their house in order. Regular production of shows like DW will only help them fund other programs that wouldn't otherwise get funding. Win-win. I stand by that assessment.