"The BBC's activities and ambitions are chilling"
- Thread starter Bob The Skutter
- Start date
Here's Charlie Brooker's take on this...
I think he should be in government.
Charlie Brooker for Prime Minister!
Charlie Brooker as Lord Protector of England, I say!
Charlie for Queen... I mean King... Charlton Brooker ICharlie Brooker as Lord Protector of England, I say!
@ Brooker.
Murdoch is a greedy dick.
Here's a side question: Why is American commercial TV capable of providing watchable entertainment while British commercial TV is not?
um I think its mostly down to the size of the US, I dont think that if the BBC went away that ITV etc would start to produce dramas on level with HBO.
the US has the advantage of a much larger audience, and does a really good job of selling to the global market.
So, in the U.K., the potential advertising revenues are so paltry that commercial networks can only just barely afford to even pander to the lowest common denominator?
Of course, that assumes that, as far as TV goes, "good" & "popular" are mutually exclusive. That's not always the case. I can think of some American shows (like CSI, Law & Order, and The Simpsons) that are generally considered to be both.
Take something with mass appeal, such as Doctor Who. What, if anything, prevents or discourages ITV or any other British commercial network from producing a show of similar quality?
I believe the best example of ITV trying to make its own Doctor Who, recently would be Primeval.
Primeval was axed simply because ITV could not afford it.
as for your more general point, Great Briton is very self important, and demands alot on the world stage, we constantly punch above our weight, competing with much large country's, where any other country our size simply would not be able to. I think that the BBC is what allows us to do this in the global TV market.
To be fair to the UK commercail sector, I think it does manage to do more than pander to the lowest common denominator, but its amazing how a cheap reality show like Dancing on Ice or X Factor (where the biggest wage is Simon Cowell) manage to attract a large audience, where as an expensive well produced drama series can not.
That argument I can understand. For that matter, it's an issue in the U.S. as well. Quality dramas with borderline ratings will sometimes get cancelled even when they get better ratings than the reality shows that get renewed because the reality shows are cheaper to produce.
Then there's the vast wasteland of paid programming that no one wants to watch but the TV stations run them anyway because they are paid for it.
I'm often up late at night, looking for something to have on in the background while I fall asleep. Often, just about the only stations with anything good on at 1am are the public television stations (particularly now that there are 3 of them). Even then, about all PBS can manage is documentaries, news programs, & intellectual reality shows like Antiques Roadshow & History Detectives. What little adult scripted entertainment they have is usually imported from the BBC-- MI-5, Lark Rise to Candleford, Sherlock Holmes, classic literature adaptations on Masterpiece Theater, British crime dramas on Masterpiece Mystery (currently Inspector Lewis), and a bunch of atrocious old sitcoms about obnoxious old people like As Time Goes By, Keeping Up Appearances, Last of the Summer Wine, & Waiting for God. (PBS used to carry some really good British stuff like Coupling, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Red Dwarf, & Tom Baker era Doctor Who, but no more.
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Then there's the vast wasteland of paid programming that no one wants to watch but the TV stations run them anyway because they are paid for it.
I'm often up late at night, looking for something to have on in the background while I fall asleep. Often, just about the only stations with anything good on at 1am are the public television stations (particularly now that there are 3 of them). Even then, about all PBS can manage is documentaries, news programs, & intellectual reality shows like Antiques Roadshow & History Detectives. What little adult scripted entertainment they have is usually imported from the BBC-- MI-5, Lark Rise to Candleford, Sherlock Holmes, classic literature adaptations on Masterpiece Theater, British crime dramas on Masterpiece Mystery (currently Inspector Lewis), and a bunch of atrocious old sitcoms about obnoxious old people like As Time Goes By, Keeping Up Appearances, Last of the Summer Wine, & Waiting for God. (PBS used to carry some really good British stuff like Coupling, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Red Dwarf, & Tom Baker era Doctor Who, but no more.
)
You'd be wrong in thinking commercial TV in the UK doesn't produce any watchable TV, in fact some of the most critically aclaimed and loved shows were from commercial channels. Cracker, Prime Suspect, Poroit, Shelock Holmes, Inspector Morse, etc. are all ITV productions... but look at what they are... They recently made Law & Order UK which was good enough to keep me watching, and Primeval, as well as Boy Meets Girl and Afterlife, all shows that were worth watching.
Channel 4 makes a lot of good comedies, from Brass Eye to Peep Show and The Inbetweeners, or Skins and Teachers loved them all and the occasional big drama, as well as stuff like live events such as live autopsies, and Derren Brown.
Sky have only recently started to produce homegrown shows seriously and have produced some good stuff already, Skellig, and the Discworld adaptations, as well as planning on more.
So it's a mistake to think commercial TV here doesn't produce good shows, it's just they don't take full advantage of them in international sales so much, and they do produce a lot of drek too, just like in the US, for every good show their must be 50 shit ones.
Also Wamdue is correct, the UK isn't big enough to support 4 or 5 multibillion dollar corporations supported by ads, ITV has something like a $2.5bn budget now the recession has hit, Channel 4 less than $1bn I think. Sky are subscription so are better off but plough their money in to imports and sport mostly and channel 5 produces a load of rubbish and imports.
So the BBC is the only corporation with a budget in the range of one of your networks and it's spread across 11 channels, plus national and local radio, they produce a lot of documentaries (a lot of which end up on Discovery over there) so they're not solely focused on entertainment.
that kind of thing has been on the raise over here the past few years, so im glad the BBC is around, as they are not allowed to show teleshopping, dail a tart, quiz call or TV gambling, like some others are.
I hate those quiz call things. When i had trouble sleeping it used to be nice to turn on the TV and find a old black and white film to watch.
best you dont read thisI hate those quiz call things. When i had trouble sleeping it used to be nice to turn on the TV and find a old black and white film to watch.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...gambling-as-Five-signs-deal-with-NetPlay.html
best you dont read thisI hate those quiz call things. When i had trouble sleeping it used to be nice to turn on the TV and find a old black and white film to watch.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...gambling-as-Five-signs-deal-with-NetPlay.html
Ha, and all the other "Quiz call" type shite wasn't gambling? No, that was "competitions" like we believe that.
If it means they will have more money to actually invest in programming then I don't really care.
They already did with ITV Play and Quiz Call, then gave them up... Wouldn't be surprised if they didn't get at least a couple of hours at some point though.
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