The meeting of the 1922 Committee with the Director General of the BBC on Wednesday evening was a private meeting and covered a wide range of topics before we had to vote in divisions. It led me to some more thoughts on the BBC and our media future which I would like to share more widely.
The BBC has an annual turnover of just £ 5.7bn. Whilst it remains an important presence in UK media, with access to substantial tax revenue in the form of the licence charge for watching live tv, it is a small presence worldwide. The global non UK activities earned just £2bn last year by charging users.
Netflix started up in 1997. It now has a turnover of $32 bn or 4.5 times that of the BBC. Amazon Prime Videos business is comparatively recent but already has a turnover larger than the BBC. Disney with a worldwide total entertainment turnover of $82 billion also has a tv turnover as large as the BBC without any preferential terms or tax in a particular country.
The BBC assures us it has a fine reputation abroad and it has ambitions to have a more influential world presence. To do so it needs to understand why the great US media corporations have been so successful at exploiting new technologies for dissemination of services and how they have captured the attention and the money of so many foreign viewers.
The BBC has a good back book of programmes and archival material from news to cultural events. It has plenty of expensive talent on its books. It commissions programmes from a range of independent producers. If it expanded its global business more rapidly this cost base could be defrayed over many more paying customers, and talent could be paid well out of the growing audience and revenue base.
Leaving aside the tax financed UK traditional business, the global/studios business could be expanded rapidly. To do so its ring fencing would need to be strong so no subsidy was paid across from UK taxpayers. It can have its own balance sheet with arrangements for accessing the back materials and the talent held by the UK BBC to the mutual benefit of the two arms of the Corporation. There could be talent sharing and revenue sharing arrangements where they were working jointly.
Some say the world BBC is held back by lack of money. With its own ring fenced balance sheet and revenue stream from overseas sales that should be easy to remedy. BBC Global could borrow against its talent, programmes and audience figures as it grows its own equity. It could bring in minority outside shareholders with equity contributions.
The UK has to earn its living. It should not sit and watch as Netflix, Amazon, Disney and the other US giants dominate the world media markets. With its reputation and established library the BBC should be able to help build one of the world giants of the new media age. Its immediate task should be to put another nought on the number for its non UK turnover. The UK has done well at building a bigger domestic film industry and has some competitive flowering in domestic tv and radio, but needs to add a media giant to the repertoire to make a difference to our balance of payments and living standards.
October 27, 2023
The BBC has trashed its brand and destroyed its value, much like a number of other businesses who have pursued a particular agenda rather than serving customers with what they want and enjoy. It would take a complete management clearout before they could begin to hope to compete with the likes of Netflix. There would also need to be a rather different regime for providing content. There are good reasons why TV from countries with their own dogmatic agendas does not sell. Who would want to watch Iranian or Venezuelan TV?
Unfortunately it is not just the BBC, but most of the UK TV industry that has been affected by an invasion of woke, left wing opinion that infiltrates all programming making for dire output even when it is supposed to be entertainment. With OFCOM now having new powers, and consisting of people who share that worldview things are not going to get better. The new censorship empowered by the government will see to that.
October 27, 2023
Spot on comment.
October 27, 2023
BBC has a fixed income irrespective of content, value or worth to its customers!! It harped on about plurality over Sky how about itself! It has now become totally disinterested in public, govt or any other opinion. Self absorbed without self reflection as we saw with its stance on Hamus. It has become a rule unto itself with the board of trustees utterly useless. The charter is also pointless because the BBC has no regard to it. A totalitarian left wing organisation full of self entitlement- you will get what we decided like it or lump it. It cannot even control a second rate presenter Gary Linnekar! JR, it will only change when taxpayer funding stops. And it must stop.
October 27, 2023
Your right Hope. I no longer pay for tv as it is not worth the money, I also object to paying money to liars and manipulators. So I have no â licenceâ and get my news on line from the GBNews web site. This has two benefits
1 I do not have to listen to the constant harping about Isreal and muslims.
2 I can listen to any subject when and where I want on my phone
The BBC is easily shunned!
October 27, 2023
+1.
I do still listen to the odd thing on radio 3 & 4 which are free anyway but nothing much on BBC TV. But then radio 4 and (even the classical music on radio 3) is getting rather unbearable with woke drivel and selection on diversity rather than interest or ability. The life scientific make a point of having equal numbers of male and female scientists (but as there are rather few of the latter (under about 20%) they rather struggle to find many suitable for a good programme. Rather heavy anti-male discrimination they must surely be exhibiting? Is this legal?
October 27, 2023
Well said Mark.
October 27, 2023
BBC World Service IS respected and appreciated outside the UK, it is also FREE under a local cable service. My impression is, having lived outside the UK for a number of years, is that BBC World is very different in style and quality of reporting to that of the domestic, politically slanted product.
I think Sir J makes good points for the restructuring of the BBC; domestic needs to be a commercial station while BBC World, which justifies it’s ‘soft power’ position, continues as is. Clearly there is no justification in the world today for a tax funded domestic media group.
October 27, 2023
The BBC world service, as a TV licence payer its the service you pay for and never receive âŠits only the BBC that wants the BBC world service
October 27, 2023
@glen cullen; Just because you do not listen to the BBC World Service radio, nor know anyone who does, do not claim no one in the UK listens to it. One of the reasons the WS was placed on both DAB and Freeview was because of the influx of complaints since it had been removed from accessible MW frequencies.
October 27, 2023
There isnât any available data to support your argument about the number of UK listeners of the BBC world service
October 27, 2023
@glen cullen; If there is no data then it is a moot point, if not mute point, as you also have no data to prove your case either. Duh! đł
As it is, I have always disagreed with the decision in 2014 to stop (most) FCO funding and light touch oversight, handing most funding and editorial control to the BBC.
October 27, 2023
Na! Peter. It should just be scrapped – saving tax payers money.
October 27, 2023
@Peter +1
October 27, 2023
Correct. Ofcom has been empowered as The Ministry of Truth ….. only one opinion allowed.
Yesterday it was reported that BBC Radio 4 has lost 477,000 listeners since Oct ’22. People are sick to death of the BBC’s biased, “woke” lecturing.
October 27, 2023
and Radio 2 lost 1.3 listeners on just one presenter change.
October 27, 2023
s/be 1.3million
October 27, 2023
BBC looks down on British people. Like some of the imported cultures into UK.
October 27, 2023
Yes Hopeđđđ»
October 27, 2023
And yet other BBC stations such as the one I listen to (5 Live) have seen an increase in their listener numbers. Tell me, has the BBC’s overall radio audience seen an increase or a decrease (and over what time period). Genuine question as I don’t actually know.
It’s also worth pointing out that thanks to new technologies there are far more radio stations than there used to be, and those stations are far more accessible than they used to be. For example, these days I am able to listen to sports programming from BBC local stations in other parts of the country (which tend to focus much more on local and lower level sports teams compared to the national stations). 10+ years ago that wasn’t possible. The days of there being just 4 national stations and 2 local (1 BBC and 1 Commercial) as was the case during my childhood are long gone.
October 27, 2023
To be honest, I didn’t know there was a BBC Radio 5. I looked it up. 13th most popular station [YouGov] 5.6m listeners although in 2022 they suffered a sharp drop in listener numbers 1.7m to 1.4m. 1.4m Breakfast program.
There is a BBC Radio 6 I wasn’t aware of too. Perhaps that’s the BBC problem, people aren’t aware of them.
Radio 5 today
Wake up to Money – I wouldn’t have thought that was your thing.
Nicky Campbell.
Adrian Chiles
Football and sport
5 Live Drive
Rugby World Cup
I listen to Smooth in the car, they were saying their listeners have gone up massively.
BBC Radio collectively says BBC.com reaches 31.7m people each week, 44% share of radio listeners. Radio 3 and Classic FM both got more listeners.
October 27, 2023
I often listen to Wake Up To Money (delayed via the BBC Sounds app as I’m rarely awake at 5am). They often have interesting discussions with multiple small business owners having to deal with real world problems and challenges.
October 27, 2023
FYI, Radio 5 was launched in 1990 and rebranded as 5 Live in 1994, so it’s over 30 years old.
While I’ve heard of Smooth, I don’t think I’ve ever listened to it. I’m sure there are radio stations, some long established, that I’ve never even heard of given the vast range of stations that the move to digital technologies has enabled.
October 27, 2023
Interesting Peter, I shall have to listen on catch up. What were these small businesses saying they were dealing with at the moment?
October 27, 2023
Recruitment challenges, wages and the cost of living, the ever increasing cost of raw materials. In the hospitality industry retention seems to be a perennial challenge.
October 27, 2023
P,
It is a public service not commercial outlet so there are huge questions why so many BBC stations!! Make it commercial and force it off public purse teet. It has no interest to change while it has a huge advantage of fixed income irrespective of outcome!! When will idiot MPs grasp the nettle?
Get rid of channel4 it is not for the state to be in the entertainment/ broadcasting industry!
October 27, 2023
@Donna; Demographics always change, some losses might well be due to issues of “wokness”, and perhaps not necessarily the same “woke” you’re thinking about. Radio 4, even today, has a very high-brow presentation style, many people perhaps now prefer the more informal style of R5, others just want news headlines, thus a BBC music stations is their current choice, indeed until the current crisis in the Middle East I had switched from Radio Four to Radio Three.
A better performance measure might be total, across the board, BBC radio audience figures, as @Peter Parsons points out, and then others might not listen in a linear way anymore, preferring ‘best of’ podcasts etc that are not measured as part of the radio audience share. How are LBC’s live audience figures doing, given how many now get their news and follow opinion via social media, if the BBC figures have fallen off the cliff but LBC figures are up, as I suggested above, perhaps the real problem is that the BBC is not woke enough! đź
October 27, 2023
The BBC should perhaps be compared to other traditional TV companies.
It offers quiz shows, soap operas, a much diminished sport offering – golf has now completely disappeared – and so on. Plus news coverage and documentaries.
I donât have a TV licence so I donât watch the BBC or live TV. I can see other channels on catch up TV.
I do have Netflix which does not offer sport, soap opera, quiz and talent shows, or any news coverage. What it does offer is entertainment free of adverts – films, drama series and documentaries for a reasonable cost. I have also watched Amazon and Apple TV which had little of interest – Ted Lasso was the big show on Apple.
I do miss the streaming channels that had all the sport on them. They were free but illegal.
I would prefer the BBC to stand alone with a subscription service perhaps and no mandatory licence or tax payer funding.
This is unlikely to happen unfortunately and the newspapers will relate what happened on âQuestion Timeâ or the morning news programme and so forth. BBC insiders will push for it to be funded out of national taxation to address the problem of falling numbers paying the licence fee. Governments will shirk the issue of how to pay for the service and it will continue with its current model for some time.
October 27, 2023
Indeed it is unfairly subsidised competition from other broadcasters and it broadcasts endless lies and propaganda plus endless repeats and tedious drivel. This on the net harm lockdowns, the causes of the current inflation and economic issues (QE and the gov. tax borrow and wast lunacy), virtually no coverage of the very many vaccine causes excess deaths and injuries, endless deluded propaganda on the deluded net zero agenda, one sidedly pro Hamas. Also no sensible questioning of the blatant bias of the Covid Inquiry.
David Frost today âCovid inquiry isnât interested in the truth about lockdown
Recent hearings suggest a striking lack of curiosity about whether shutting down was a good decisionâ
Indeed not the net harms and many excess deaths caused by the âvaccinesâ, the absurd bias of the Covid Inquiry is absolutely appalling a disgrace to the UK legal system. Let me help them, their conclusions should be:-
Lockdowns did substantial net harm to both health and the economy, the vaccines also did huge net harm & certainly for younger people, the pre pandemic planning was appalling, the failure to use (banning even) of preventative and other safe treatments that we knew were likely to work (Like vitamin D3) killed thousands and the vaccines millions worldwide. Dumping infected people into care homes without testing was evil and idiotic. Trying to force people to take the vaccines for their jobs & especially young people or those who had had covid already (who never needed any protection even had they been remotely safe and effective) was surely criminal negligence that killed many thousands.
Test and trace was a rip off sick joke surely just a way to hose tax payers money to mates? No analysis of the net harms of lockdowns was even attempted.
A sensible honest cost/benefit/harms analysis should always be done before taking any actions such as coercing new tech âvaccinationsâ or lockdowns. Scientist from both sided of the argument should be engaged and not one sided group think.
We should have this with Net Zero too. The deluded advocates of net zero have no rational arguments – this too clearly does vastly more harm than good.
October 27, 2023
The BBC is NOT meant to be a brand.
The BBC is meant to be about producing and broadcasting original and creative and artistic and unique (and politically neutral) content that the private sector can’t do.
And that from this we should then debate how it should be funded and run etc ..
October 27, 2023
What it is ‘meant’ to be, and what it is are different things!
October 28, 2023
I think the Tories’ main concern is that the BBC does not support socialism. And I agree (I mean I am a Tory voter and anti socialism). The BBC should be politically neutral.
I think the mistake the Tories made was to put Lord Birt into power. Lord Birt commercialised it but in a way that has now opened it up to WOKISM (and the BBC still relatively socialistic although in fairness there have been some Conservative journalists in it as well but not that many).
I think the stance the Tories should take is to save the BBC but to get rid of the commercial element in it and for the BBC to be about being original / creative / unique in a way that private TV can’t do. And I think that would involve lowering the license fee but a fair amount.
And why not just get rid of BBC journalism / news altogether. That might be radical. But I’d rather that than seeing the BBC disappear altogether / privatised. That would indirectly harm our arts industry which is worth a lot and that feeds the commercial creative industries as well as well as a sense of patriotism (the arts are a key part of patriotic values).
October 27, 2023
@Mark; But the BBC has no place competing with the likes of Netflix, the BBC either exists as per its Charter or should not exist at all.
Nor is it the job of the BBC, outside of war, to broadcast what the government or singular sections of society want to hear, hence the storm of protest when it was feared the BBC would kowtow to the government during the General Strike of 1926. The problem the BBC has at present is, due to the events that culminated in the Hutton Inquiry, the BBC *did* end up kowtowing to the wishes of government then and since!
October 27, 2023
Well said, sir – the BBC should NOT be commercial nor should it be political either. It should be more of an ARTS-like organisation and politically neutral.
October 27, 2023
Then you are arguing it should not exist at all. Its Reithian mandate is
To inform: it supplies misinformation, and lies by omission
To educate: it provides an unmitigated diet of propaganda, much of it seeking to overturn fact
To entertain: all entertainment is now suffused with the same diet of propaganda that makes it unwatchable.
October 27, 2023
@Mark; Well yes, if Public Service Broadcasting no longer matters then indeed, perhaps the BBC should no longer exist – as I said.
But I suspect the real problem here is you like, so many others, fail to understand what PSB is and is not, hence your rather cheap shots aimed towards Lord Reith.
PSB is not about telling you what you want to hear, nor you telling others what you want them to hear, hence why the history around the still fledgling BBC and the General Strike are important, and why the events that lead to the Hutton Inquiry (and since) has marked such a low point.
“and lies by omission”
Nothing like a Complex argument, make assumptions and then demand other defend such assumptions.
October 27, 2023
I have never understood why businesses (and I loosely include the BBC in that) get involved in politics – they immediately alienate at least half the population when they do, like we had recently with a beer company. The BBC is now reaping their own whirlwind as calls for the ending of the licence fee grows, a payback for biased and woke idealism which will destroy it in the end. Had they stuck to producing good quality programmes rather than paying some woke presenters millions of pounds for virtually nothing they would be far better off. We know they can do it but they are infested with university types who come out of uni fully programmed with the latest tosh their professors have thought up, or mainly copied from America.
October 27, 2023
all their ‘News’ coverage is what they want to happen, not what actually has…
Balanced is a joke….always biased.
October 27, 2023
The BBC should take a leaf out of Dolly Parton’s book and stay neutral, âIâve got as many Republican friends as Iâve got Democrat friends and I just donât like voicing my opinion on things,â she says. âIâve seen things before, like the Dixie Chicks. You can ruin a career for speaking out. I respect my audience too much for that, I respect myself too much for that. Of course, I have my own opinions, but that donât mean I got to throw them out there because youâre going to p*ss off half the people.â
However, in a recent interview in womanandhome she quoted the lyrics of one of her songs:
âDon’t get me started on politics, Now how are we to live in a world like this, Greedy politicians, present and past, They wouldn’t know the truth if it bit ’em in the ass.â
Who she was asked: âAll of them. any of them.â She replies, plainly.
She then adds, âI donât think any of them are trying hard enough⊠They worry more about their party than they do about the people.â Dolly added the better approach would be âIf we just do what we felt was the right thing rather than whoâs going to lose or whoâs going to win this, or whoâs going to look better if they do this.â
October 27, 2023
The BBC is lying YET AGAIN !
“Care home residents without provision rely on the local councils for funding”
They actually rely on the over-charging of fellow residents !!! (And then Anne Widdecombe lectures people who have looked after parents for a decade already as “not doing their duty” when mum can’t wipe her own bum anymore and doesn’t want her children doing it. This despite all the hospital trips, bed making social trips, cooking cleaning on and on that they’ve done already.)
But even if it is the councils… it’s the council tax payer paying for it !!!
October 27, 2023
Good morning.
The BBC may have a good global reputation, according to the BBC itself, but in the UK people are slowly turning their backs on Auntie. And with good reason !
The problem, of which there are many with the BBC, is one of culture. The culture in the BBC like in most State organisations is Left leaning and metropolitan. It does not care about its audience so long as the money keeps coming in.
The UK has always thought small, unlike in the USA and they have a ‘can do’ culture and admire those who make it. They call it the, “American Dream” and there are no bars to access. We on the other hand just want to tax, borrow and waste on various State schemes.
Until organisations like the BBC and the NHS operate in a market they will never grow.
October 27, 2023
Like most government organisations the BBC, NHS, State Schools⊠they do not care about customers or viewers they are forced to pay in taxes and licence fees anyway so get what they are given or not given. Sod them seems to be their attitude. Free and fair competition between state and private provision please – in healthcare, education, housing, universities, broadcasting, transportâŠ
October 27, 2023
‘The BBC may have a good global reputation’
The BBC exists solely to cater to its license payers – not its global audience.
If selling content to its global audience helps it overall, great. But if the BBC then becomes a playground for the well-paid to over-focus on the BBC being like a business (instead of producing / broadcasting original / unique programmes that the private sector can’t do), including selling content abroad, then it is clearly breaking its reason to be and so licence payers are being robbed of their money!
October 27, 2023
‘license’: licence: thicko (me)
October 27, 2023
either will do – why worry about it.
October 27, 2023
“C” before “S” just as Noun before Verb is the mnemonic I learned. When you get a licence you are licensed.
October 27, 2023
It is hard to listen or watch anything at all on the BBC without being hit on the head or propagandised too with their climate alarmism lunacy and their lefty, woke & diversity agenda. Do they ever have scientist or building workers on the BBC who are not female or suitable diverse now? In the real world only at most 20% are female but not on the BBC more like 100%. Vast discrimination by them and it rather shows in the quality they attract. Please recruit just on ability for a change.
October 27, 2023
Well said.
WOKE is as much an enemy to our country as socialism (and a lot of people in business can be WOKE too to placate their consumers).
October 27, 2023
You are not comparing the U.K. with the USA. You are comparing âthe civil serviceâ (which is what the BBC is really) with private enterprise.
No country or set of individuals has ever thought bigger than Britain and her people. Unfortunately those with the âwhite heat of technologyâ and âbig ideasâ have been cut down by the tiny minded statists, so they have decamped and done their stuff from elsewhere or âgone skiingâ instead of making the massive contribution that was rebuffed (Iâm quoting someone specifically).
October 27, 2023
iDear Lynn Atkinson,
You are 100 per cent right. The only chance of the UK developing something like Sir John’s vision would have been Mr Murdoch’s SKY, which was driven out rather than succoured. Apart from Disney, Sir John’s exemplars are all first generation entrepreneurial companies.
In my experience, trying to inject a risk-taker mentality into a corporate, bureaucratic organsation such as the BBC usually results in costly disaster. Anyone remember GEC or ICI.
October 27, 2023
Or ICL or British Leyland?
October 27, 2023
You make good arguments about what should happen to make more of the BBC’s assets. However that requires a mind set and a skill set that appears to be absent in the BBC. It is so firmly entrenched in and reliant on its current financing format that the chances of finding someone from within with the nous and drive to achieve what you suggest in a global competitive world must be close to zero.
October 27, 2023
Auction all the old BBC assets off and use all the proceeds to give tax breaks.
October 27, 2023
Disagree Lifelogic. One-off tax hits or sale values give a tax break for one year; the BBC should provide the UK with dividends yearly.
It’s like asking for windfall taxes on energy companies’ good soundbites or an extra 1% hit on all people earning over ÂŁ100k per annum. Wrong.
October 27, 2023
I am trying to think what programmes the BBC is currently showing that anyone in the rest of the world would want to watch. Not easy.
October 27, 2023
The BBC sees itself as a political organisation funded by taxes.
It has no incentive to become a Netflix type of organisation as it has a guaranteed income stream
Paying the likes a jug ears and ball their tremendous salaries tells you all you need to know about them
October 27, 2023
Indeed. But these Con-socialists clearly have no political will to do anything about the BBC.
The NHS waiting list could reach 8 million by next summer regardless of whether strike action continues, according to new research I see. How are Sunakâs other promises coming on? Perhaps concentrate on these rather than AI and you moronic net zero agenda mate?
October 27, 2023
People want to pay their rent and mortgages, heat their homes, hugely restrict illegal amd legal migration levels and the vast costs, get their operations promptly, keep their jobs, have taxes are lower more sensible levelsâŠ
So Rishi, forget you silly A levels reforms, smoking bans, AI and your other pathetic distractions.
October 27, 2023
I don’t think there are any national broadcasters who have Netflix type channels. Britain and the WU do everything possible to styme innovation through punitive tax and regulations.
October 27, 2023
Don’t scratch your head too long, it will make nearby people uneasy.
October 27, 2023
Agreed (and during Covid, when I lived on my own, I literally only watched, over about 2 years, about 10 hours+ of TV – on my own – and that was to watch the BBC’s brilliant 1995 film series of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice).
I only pay the license now so that family and friends can watch TV when they come and stay. I just think it’s a load of sh-t now (I’d much rather go for a walk and look at trees, the river Thames, the architecture of London etc).
October 27, 2023
You could have saved most of the licence fee by buying it on DVD or BluRay. Doing it that way means that the original actors get to share a few pennies in royalties for their performance too.
October 27, 2023
The BBC is a State Broadcaster …. part of, and disseminating propaganda, on behalf of the Left-wing Establishment.
It has the personnel and mind-set of Pravda, not Netflix. Until both change, it will never compete with the likes of Netflix. And it won’t change because the Government is too cowardly to cancel the BBC Poll Tax.
October 27, 2023
Hit nail on head!
October 27, 2023
+1 that is why the govt will not change any part of it.
October 27, 2023
+1
October 27, 2023
At the moment the government is making it rather easy for anyone from the rest of the world to come and watch the BBC here. You and your Tory colleagues, Sir John, sit in parliament on the basis of a 2019 manifesto pledging to ‘make sure overall migration figures come down’. The net migration figure was then a little over 200,000. Now it’s three times that. By any standard your party in government has failed lamentably on that manifesto pledge. It must have been a big comfort to government ministers that the recent BBC programmes on the housing crisis barely mentioned migration as a factor contributing hugely to the problem. How can we build over half a million homes a year so that accommodation for migrants can be provided when the construction industry can’t house the population already here?
October 27, 2023
The BBC has been a bĂȘte noire for Sir John for as long as I can remember. The reason is that those on the far right of the party cannot significanty infuence editorial policy – and so constantly make unfounded allegations of impartiality etc.
The BBC is not Netfix, it is a public broadcaster that provides an astounding range of programming that is relevant to the British people across many media platforms. The government has persistently starved the BBC of funding for the past 13 years and as a result we and the world have lost a great deal of previously available content. Live test cricket, childrens programming, the global reach of the World Service, local radio, many world class news presenters, those wonderful Sunday afternoon costume dramas – to name but a few.
Breaking up and selling off the media envy of the world would would turn into another great Conservative privatisation success story like the railways. Or the sewage dumping industry. Or the energy industry. Or selling off council housing. And all because a small minority of far-right MPs want to be able to set BBC editorial policy more to their liking.
Reply Do not lie about my views. Try reading what I say and engaging with a big issue about global media and how we earn our livings
October 27, 2023
I haven’t noticed any far right amongst the Conservatives, and certainly not from Sir John. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t endorse white supremacy, whilst he does support universal healthcare and education – hardly far right.
O haven’t noticed him making “unfounded accusations of impartiality”, quite the opposite. This charge is better levelled at the BBC themselves.
October 27, 2023
@Dave Andrews +1
October 27, 2023
@Sir John
I do not wish to misrepresent your views on the BBC, which are well known.
The real issue is that you wish to control the BBC’s editorial content and shift it away from a politically and ethnically balanced point of view to one more in tune with your right-wing opinions. If you cannot achieve this, you would be prepared to privatise the media envy of the world – renowed for truthfullness and independence – into another railways and water industry fiasco.
For someone who avers that you do not like the BBC, you seem to spend a lot of time watching it. I suggest that you turn your set off when programs with which you do not agree are showing. Simples!
Reply Again you lie. I have no wish to turn the BBC away from neutrality in accordance with its Charter, and my piece was not about whether it currently conforms with its Charter. It is as described a issue about whether the Uk wants to earn a living in a fiercely competitive world when media is an area we could do well in but the BBC watcesh as others do it for us.
October 27, 2023
Sakara G, BBC starved of funds, you say? Any time I’ve watched the BBC recently, its programme and presenters didn’t look at all starved. If the government had allowed a bigger licence fee, the likes of Gary Lineker would probably be getting an even bigger salary. Also, I wouldn’t call the 375,000 people who’ve stopped watching the Today programme in just the last year “far right’. If people switch off the BBC, there’s a reason.
October 27, 2023
@ Sakara âThe BBC is a public broadcaster that provides an astounding range of programming that is relevant to the British peopleâ. âThe government has persistently starved the BBC of funding for the past 13 yearsâ (ÂŁ5.7 billion PA of income PA)
I assume you are being satirical. If they have this âastounding range of programmes relevant for peopleâ then these people will happily pay to watch them without being forced too – as they choose to do for other broadcasters.
October 27, 2023
Starved ? The licence fee has increased steadily, while most holders decry what is available.
If it cut out the staff and cost dedicated to so-called diversity and balance, perhaps output would naturally move back to examples like historical figures being acted by the prevailing racial position at the time.
This rewriting of history means plenty of our friends refuse to watch once these idiotic changes come to light.
October 27, 2023
And yet strangely SG, the BBC is rarely watched in this house (or in other close family homes) – there are better, wider content choices available these days, even on Freeview. Same with radio I’m afraid, we don’t listen to Radio 2 in the car anymore…
October 27, 2023
To me JR is hardly far right wing he is sensible fairly middle of the road. Or would be in a more sensible country that did not suffer such endless socialist propaganda from the BBC types, the education system etc.
October 27, 2023
Wouldn’t it be interesting, Sakara Gold, for the BBC to actually interview these UK water companies and get them all in to defend their position? Have you ever seen a program like that, not just an attack-based program with no right to reply?
I don’t think it should be sold off, but I think it should return a profit for us, the taxpayers and the British people as long-term investors in its success, for all the people working within it to safeguard their future. It shouldn’t only reward the people within it, it needs to find a way to act more like a business that contributes to all private sector workers pensions or ISAs.
October 27, 2023
PS, SG
Is the licence funding not enough ? Surely the BBC is overreaching and has taken up all the local journalism jobs too !!!
October 27, 2023
@SG; The BBC could have kept the rights to many sports rights, but chose not to [1], instead they preferred to spread their wings and money on other things, trying to be populist; if the BBC can make Eastenders they could have made those wonderful Sunday afternoon costume dramas instead; if the BBC can record a Pop group in concert they can record a Symphony orchestra in concert, comes down to choices, the BBC is not short of funding, far from it!
I disagree with the tone of your comment, although you are correct, successive Conservative governments (not our host…) have required the BBC to make changes, forcing an internal market on the Corporation, appointing some most unsuitable Directory General’s, changing how “BBC success” is measured (BARB ratings only tell half the story). But the biggest changes came during the Blair government, changes the BBC has not and probably never will recover from, what is more those changes also adversely affected how the BBC is perceived around the world, changes that struck at their very ability to be impartial.
[1] the BBC were never going to be able to compete for rights to live test cricket, not when the Murdoch empire was gambling to their last AUD on the success of British Sky
October 27, 2023
Starved of funds, it should grow and make its own money! By selling its programs netflix style to other countries and getting us some of our investment back in dividends for the taxpayers.
It can afford its highest ‘talent’ often already millionaire footballers in their own right. The lists don’t even include people who make their shows hidden by BBC studios who are run outside the BBC!! Some of these people earn this money for just one show per week!
October 27, 2023
Goldie, as usual 3/10 really must do better, if I was your employer you would be sacked. Nothing fresh!
October 27, 2023
@Sakara Gold
Iâm pretty left wing. I am not one of the right wing people on here. As a matter of fact Iâve never thought of Mr. Redwood as being right wing.
Right wing I associate with fascism and nationalism. Not much evidence of that here. Wanting immigration limited is not right wing – it is simply common sense. We donât have the infrastructure for lots more people – the housing, doctorsâ surgeries, hospitals etc. And I think most people donât want the country covered with housing to accommodate anyone who fancies living here.
That said, as far as I am concerned the BBC is very biased and woke. It allows no challenge to the net zero insanity (I suppose you think that is right wing too) and was ludicrously pro Remain. It still is very âEU good, UK bad).
Notwithstanding oneâs view of the BBC, it is not fair that I canât watch live television from other providers that I pay for – Netflix, Amazon and Apple – without paying the BBC their extorted licence fee.
So I donât pay the licence fee and donât watch live TV.
October 27, 2023
Yes properly run by entrepreneurial business men and women rather than the Guardianista zealots they employ at present, the overseas business could fund the domestic operation.
The news and current affairs element needs to be cast to commercial survival. Their bizaare political slant would jeopodise any expanded business overseas. They would probably be banned in Israel. Their light entertainment division would need to regain a sense of humour to develope any serious following at home or overseas, woke and PC being its biggest problem.
Historically one thing is very obvious, politicians are far too lily livered to lift a finger against the BBC, being created from the same mould.
October 27, 2023
‘overseas business could fund the domestic operation’
No. One of the points of the BBC is to be overall free of commercial pressures (and political pressures – should be politically neutral). If that involves reducing the license fee, fine. But not to turn it into a commercial organisation – rather more an ARTISTIC, CREATIVE one.
So the BBC should be run more by people in the Arts than Business or Politics (and trying to turn it into a business organisation as the Tories did with Lord Birt is one of the reasons why the BBC is so sh-t at the moment, including allowing the WOKE brigade into the BBC (a lot of businesses are WOKE to placate their WOKE ‘consumers’).
October 27, 2023
The problem with the BBC is that it is free from commercial pressures. That means it works to satisfy itself, and not its customers. Commercial pressure produced The Jewel in the Crown. There are no jewels in the BBC.
October 27, 2023
Sir JR, you say much but don’t address the two big issues around the BBC.
It is perceived (rightly in my opinion) as a left-wing/woke organisation, thrusting it’s views into the British public.
Secondly, it is funded by a compulsory tax to watch even a minute of BBC/year. This could not be a more outdated system. It needs to move to subscription and should have done so ten years ago..
Reply I have written about the UK BBC in a previous post
October 27, 2023
It is iniquitous that it is still a criminal offence not to buy a tv licence, the receipts of which go to the BBC, even if you never watch the BBC but do watch other live tv. The BBC is unworthy of the mantle ‘public service broadcaster’ whose mission is “to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain”. Its impartiality is a myth as described by the late Peter Sissons in this Daily Mail article from January 2011 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1349506/Left-wing-bias-Its-written-BBCs-DNA-says-Peter-Sissons.html
October 27, 2023
That is all very well but, with respect, it doesn’t answer the question, why should the taxpayer be funding a broadcasting organisation? We know the historic answer but why continue not only with with taxpayer funding but mandatory ring-fenced taxpayer funding? Each part of that needs answering: why taxpayer? why ring fenced? why mandatory?
If for example it is tax payer funded in order to give voice to British values and to maintain them it needs to do a lot better than it does since so much of its output is quite derogatory. On the other hand UK does not need a propaganda broadcaster.
October 27, 2023
There are a lot of people in the UK who say they don’t even know what British values and British culture is. So it’s not doing an excellent job for us.
The waspi women claimed they didn’t know about the raising of their pension age from decisions made in 1991. It started rising in 2010, so it had nearly two decades to inform everyone. It was being discussed years before 1991 too as the EU required equalisation from its members on things from insurance policies to pension ages.
October 27, 2023
Your views chime with those of many critics of the BBC. A Murdoch should have been appointed director general a long time ago.
October 27, 2023
Do you think that in these woke times the BBC is ashamed of its back library?
October 27, 2023
Excellent points Sir John. I think itâs time for the BBC to make its own way in the world of media, especially TV, rather than being propped up by the licence fee. The fee is blatantly unfair. Yes they have wonderful archive material but the quality of their contemporary productions are woefully poor, indeed unwatchable. All productions on TV and Radio 4 are laced with woke and gender nonsense and anything political lacks balance. They really have lost their way. That said, the newly styled Radio 3 is rather good!
October 27, 2023
Excellent points Sir John. I think itâs time for the BBC to make its own way in the world of media, especially TV, rather than being propped up by the licence fee. Yes they have wonderful archive material but the quality of their contemporary productions are woefully poor. All productions on TV and Radio 4 are laced with woke and gender nonsense and anything political lacks balance. They really have lost their way. That said, the newly styled Radio 3 is rather good!
October 27, 2023
The BBC, like the NHS or the civil service will not change while the income stream is guaranteed. It requires more courage than the Conservative party can muster to bring about reform. Indeed, all the government’s interventions tend in the other direction as though the taxpayer were the enemy.
October 27, 2023
Public sector organisation that doesnât have to compete for its income. Changing its culture after many decades into something entrepreneurial, please get real. You are making zero headway with the Civil Service for instance.
Like many of our other institutions politicians will continue to subsidise (and indeed attack it) it as long as they see political benefit.
October 27, 2023
The BBC is a dinosaur eating our tax money and delivering biased output.
The government should stop this tax and allow the BBC to live or die on itâs own profits.
October 27, 2023
So respected abroad comedians in Australia are mocking it .
October 28, 2023
And in Israel.
October 27, 2023
Not sure how the suggested “Ring Fence” would work, as our host said, the BBC already has a non TVL fee funded external subsidiary, and the Corporation has to be very careful how both money and products flow between each. I can see this becoming an even greater problem, with even greater dissatisfaction from TVL fee payers, when it becomes known what the BBC can ‘broadcast’ outside the UK but not within. Whilst I no longer support the BBC as it is currently run, I do not want to see it totally destroyed by a thousand cuts.
Has, for example, “Eastenders” ever existed legitimately within the BBC’s PSB remit, seems to exist only to poach viewers from ITV/Ch4 and now satellite and cable?
The BBC’s problem is that it has become over commercialized, I fear our hosts solutions would only make matters worse, when the actual solution is to return the BBC, kicking and screaming if needs-be, back to a more pure universal Public Service over the air BROADCAST service within the wording of its Charter, doing a lot less, far better [1], allowing the TVL fee to be cut substantially. If the TVL fee was cut by two thirds that allows each licence holder to spend ÂŁ100 pa as they choose, with Netflix, Sky, BTTV etc, or not at all.
[1] such as local & regional programming that simply can no longer be sustained within an over commercialized sector, we mostly no longer have regional TV in the UK, ITV is a single entity with a single identity, not the 14 or so separate companies as envisaged back in 1955, the BBC has also cut back on their regional programming and identities.
Reply So you are saying define a public service broadcast that is not popular enough to sustain a commercial channel. What would it do and why? How much more tax/ subsidy would it need?
October 27, 2023
Netflix and Amazon etc. I suspect all became big due to the way the US telecoms and ‘broadcast’ media industry works, over the air broadcasting is far less common, far less reliable; thus development and implementation of alternate cable, satellite and IP services were never held back as they were here in the UK, the latter often for political reasons. The Labour Party originally objected to the Television Act 1954, and when UK domestic satellite services finally became a reality in the 1990s it quickly became a monopoly in the hands of a single provider, with successive governments refusing to exercise proper regulatory control, unwilling to upset the said media moguls empire.
October 27, 2023
Time was when the BBC would command audiences of 25 million for popular programmes and significant numbers of programmes regularly beat 10 million viewers. Many of those programmes achieved genuine commercial success, being sold around the world. They are still in demand today. Modern BBC output does not command similar attention. In just over 20 years, trust in the BBC has halved according to YouGov surveys: probably a survey run now would show much lower levels of trust – the last was in May. They are now like Kaa the snake in The Jungle Book, singing Trust in me.
October 27, 2023
time was when BBC had almost no challenge – bit different now!
October 27, 2023
@Mark; So nothing to do with the available audience share being split due to ever increasing digital channels, and now streaming services? All broadcasters have seen a drop in their audience share, in fact this trend started well before BSkyB and then OnDigital (now Freeview), both the BBC and ITV saw drops when Ch4 started in the early 1980s.
I would love to hear your explanation as to why, relative to its broadcast hours, BBC THREE has become a success, although looking at the weighted BARB figures one might be mistaken to think otherwise – even so, BARB is still a better measure than YouGov polling…
October 27, 2023
@JR reply; I’m suggesting it would mean LESS tax subsidy, perhaps a ÂŁ50 pa TVL fee, certainly a sub ÂŁ100 fee.
There is no point in the BBC existing, and nor should it, other than as a PSB content provider/broadcaster. The UK is over supplied with commercial/subscription broadcasters, just look at the listings magazines, the same content on multiple channels.
I’m suggesting fewer BBC national radio stations, a lot fewer TV channels, BBC Parliament be hived off to form a UK Cspan. Frequencies can thus be sold off, maintaining free to air access, with perhaps some surprising uptakes (Ofcom permitting, of course…). Why does BBC Radio 1 still exist, more reason for BBC 6music to exist but it is the latter that gets threatened with the axe. Does Radio 2 need to exist in its present form, unwilling as it is to serve the needs of anyone born before 1980. Most of what is broadcast on BBC One & Two TV could be sold off to commercial channels, much is already made by independent production companies; on the flip-side some of the programming on BBC THREE & Four could not.
Besides their existing national PSB responsibilities, for example, the forthcoming services of Remembrance, the BBC would do all that the commercial or subscription companies don’t, because programmes or genres cannot be successfully commercialized (anymore).
ITV has threatened many times to pull the plug on their regional magazine programmes, the BBC via the TVL fee is perfectly placed to provide not only regional news magazines programmes but also regional documentaries, even local sporting events that are not already covered by broadcast contracts, thus giving scope for local independent production companies to make content.
The BBC used to make open access programmes, via its Community Programme Unit, under editorial guidance any group could apply to make a programme that highlighted an interest or issue. Yes some programmes were controversial but so what, so was Brexit once.
There *is* a place for allowing the BBC to develop, bring on, new content, via partnerships with independent production companies, but not for the BBC to become its long term home. There is a place for in-depth Culture and the Arts, such programmes often achieve low BARB figures and thus little or no commercial interest; “The South Bank Show”, “Arena”, “Play for Today” type content, and of course there is the BBC back catalogue.
Sorry for a rather long comment!
October 27, 2023
Isn’t that because they are over generous in paying high salaries and huge perks?
It would make sense to have the BBC fully funded by foreign earnings, but the BBC seems to delight in having power over some people who don’t pay them.
I rarely watch the BBC although I do other channels, because it has become so woke and dishonest. Before it becomes a true global media power, it needs to reform, get back to basics and actually provide programs that are worthy of it’s heritage.
October 27, 2023
@Bryan Harris; “Isnât that because they are over generous in paying high salaries and huge perks?”
No, the BBC pay industry norms, and indeed if anything at one point had a history of paying less, but providing better working conditions and training, indeed the BBC was once regarded as the training provider for the UK broadcast industry. So unless you want the BBC run and presented by media college interns and others without experience…
October 27, 2023
This is an interesting article on BBC stars who moved to independent tv, but not all successfully long term….whether it’s offering a good career move is very debatable.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/from-bbc-to-itv-the-shows-and-stars-who-fared-poorly-after-crossing-over-a6727841.html
October 27, 2023
@a-tracy; I was talking about more than just the celebs, such people might be the face of the BBC but are a small number of those employed directly or indirectly by the BBC. I’m also amused you chose to cite an eight year old article, from a not very reliable source at that. I wonder what Sky and the upcoming streaming services pay their ‘celebs’ these days, perhaps you could Google that next? đ
October 28, 2023
I dont care what Sky pay to people, I donât have to buy a Sky licence under threat of fine or worse for watching GB News or C4 Jerry. Always glad to put a smile on your face đ.
You said the BBC was regarded as the training provider, I put into google is the BBC the training provider for Independent tv and it didnât come up with much as you say a dated article got top billing by Google. Do you have any evidence of your claim from recent examples that you are talking about?
October 28, 2023
@a-tracy; All your anti BBC rant does is prove the old adage; Never more blind than those who choose not to see. And Blind people also pay for commercial TV, which includes Sky, via the checkouts. Interesting opinion about industry wide pay parity though, no wonder you hate the Trade Unions and the old collective bargaining!
As for your nonsense about a supposed Google search, using the search string;
Google returned some 44,700 results in 0.42 seconds, and guess what, top of the list is a URL that links direct to the current BBC Skills and Training portal… If you want insight into past BBC training, research “Wood Norton Hall” near Evesham. Whatever.
October 28, 2023
Jerry, I wasnât ranting against the BBC, I do and would buy a BBC licence?
I pay for commercial tv through the advertising of their products again, if their products are too expensive I donât buy them. I keep telling you I donât âhateâ anything, you project your feelings onto me.
Whatever. You are such a one.
October 29, 2023
@a-tracy; I wasn’t going to reply but your follow-up is so crass.
If you can not be bothered to educate yourself as to what the industry pay norms are then you *are* ranting about BBC salaries!
This is 2013, not 1973, there are valid alternatives to watching live TV, there are legal alternatives to paying the TVL fee. Sure some options will not be live, some might only be Highlights etc, but that is not an argument against the BBC, nor the TVL fee, were many the same restrictions now exist.
As for your own sign-off, well at least I can be bothered to educate myself as to how the industry works and why. If you read my other comments you will see I have many the same complaints, that I believe the BBC needs to change, but do not just repeat what the anti BBC press say…
October 27, 2023
The BBC should not necessarily be in competition with other media – I’d be happy to see some new talent coming through the BBC.
Let’s face it the current shows are pretty awful, over-hyped and often desperate for applause – Getting rid of the stale storylines and soaps would do the reputation of the BBC a power of good.
October 28, 2023
@Bryan Harris; I suspect if the BBC were to sell off, not scrap, Eastenders, Strictly, Match of the Day etc, so long as they remained on Freeview, their BARB audience figures would not change greatly. You nor I might not like such programmes, nor the talent, but others clearly do.
If you want a personalized playlist you need to think about accessing VOD content, and that applies to all broadcasters and channels, not just the BBC.
October 27, 2023
The BBC should be a subscription service.
Viewers would willingly pay for pieces worth watching.
Far too much of what it pumps out is not.
October 27, 2023
If we are talking media I would prefer our host to talk about the pernicious attack on free speech contained in the On Line Safety Bill. I believe Ofcom have recruited an extra 350 âthought policeâ to ensure only their (the establishments) take on issues prevails.
This started with social media monitoring of the anti lockdown etc group and is continuing with the Judge led review not interested in establishment criticisms.
We are being taken diwn a totalitarian path.
October 27, 2023
The BBC needs to set up a login system linked to the ID reference number printed on the license and set up a system so anyone worldwide can subscribe to it. Maybe they donât know or care that there are millions of people living abroad who watch the service for free. Everyone I know living in Spain, the Netherlands, and Southern Ireland watches it and doesnât pay a penny. As the BBC gets a guaranteed income stream and isnât a company owned by shareholders thereâs little incentive for it to make additional revenue. Also, why are we the taxpayers paying for the World Service, which just seems to be a left-wing propaganda medium reminiscent of the days of empire?
October 27, 2023
Slowly very slowly the effect of the market will have an impact on the BBC – the loss of 443000 listeners will continue covered of course by the usual corporate excuses.
October 27, 2023
The BBC is an organisation the belonged in the last century. It either needs serious reform with the TV channels sold off or it needs closing down and replacing.
October 27, 2023
The other “giants” mentioned- Amazon, Netflix and Disney have one thing in common with the BBC. They are all run by woke propagandists and all have seen profits slashed as customers leave. They all seek to rewrite history and promote perversion and I hope all of them go bust because the harm they do is incalculable.
October 27, 2023
From the BBC Accounts
âFor the first time there is now 50% representation of women in the BBCâs workforce and progress has been made in relation to Black and ethnic minority staff at 17%, disabled staff at 9.4% and 21% of the workforce are from low socio-economic backgrounds â all up on last year.â
For this to be a matter to show up in its accounts shows the BBC, like others that have forgotten its audience so is not concerned with customer delivery, but âdiscriminationâ
BBC America that delivers to the US and other English speaking areas outside of North America, was in part sold of some years ago
October 27, 2023
BBC America was sold off! Does it still buy BBC Programs at a profit to the UK?
October 27, 2023
@a-tracy programs go both ways ‘Killling Eve’ is a BBC American program
October 28, 2023
So is it a free trade or does money change hands Ian?
October 27, 2023
Are those stats truly representative of the nations population? No of course they are not…even the male/female is wrong!
October 27, 2023
The Government could reduce the licence fee if BBC Global were successful.âSo this reduces the BBC’s incentives to be successful.âIf BBC Global were to aim high and fail then those leading it can’t hide the low profit.âBut if they don’t even try then the gravy train continues.
Survival is a good incentive.âAnnounce harsh scheduled cuts to the licence fee.âDecriminalise non-payment.âContinue to fund the World Service as a boost to soft power.âTell the BBC it needs to find other profits.âAccept the Director General’s resignation.âAppoint Andrew Neil, chairman of the Spectator Group, for one last hurrah.
October 27, 2023
Off topic
Until someone addresses the question of Agenda 2030 everything else is irrelevant
October 27, 2023
As a nationalised industry, the BBC does not have to show a profit and shareholder return for investment money; all they have to worry about is paying the ‘talent’ and all staff well and the union; it is a shame some of that talent money isn’t spent to new people instead of all the same old, same old all the time. [ named individual questioned along with this device Ed)paid into a company so he can reduce his tax and national insurance bill and theirs so we don’t get 47% immediately back in taxation (then again, I forget the cost of BBC employee pensions 25% on top of wages).
I read foreigners bragging about getting the BBC for free through a VPN. As you say, John, why isn’t it as big as Netflix? With America, Australia and New Zealanders and many other Countries all speaking the same language and loving BBC drama and news shows?
We have a problem in this country of training too many arts grads who can’t get work. From musicians & singers to actors and artists. Since covid shut down America routes to employment there isn’t enough work for them, although we do give Americans visas to work freely in the UK, small UK play companies and music festivals should bid to be featured on the BBC it would cost a fraction of what they pay big producers, there is room for all size companies, sadly our large nationalised industries tend to prefer to work with big companies not always UK based.
October 27, 2023
I don’t follow how a respiratory disease can shut down routes to employment. Perhaps you mean government lockdowns did that?
October 27, 2023
Sorry Hat Man my bad grammar, since covid, the American government have shut down routes to employment, you have to have a green card before you can get contracts and their companies arenât supporting visas for artists as they were before. The UK is still providing work for all nationalities.
October 27, 2023
‘The BBC has a good back book of programmes’ – says JR.
Yeah, we know, we see ’em a dozen times a day and even then they have woke warnings on them if they go over the current woke ideology. Endless swearing and sex scenes o.k. but not humour from earlier times. They are a dead loss and probably cannot be recovered now.
October 27, 2023
All you say is true but I doubt that the psychology of the âstateâ corporation is capable of becoming competitive, even of deploying its fantastic legacy back catalog, because so much is âpolitically incorrectâ.
We never see some of the most wonderful televisions shows ever made, like âMapp and Luciaâ for instance and the only reason can be that the politics does not correlate with the warped management and âtalentâ of the contemporary BBC.
Perhaps the solution is to sell the back catalog to a new outfit?
October 27, 2023
At the end of the day, people just feel that the BBC is anti british
October 27, 2023
+i well said Glen
October 27, 2023
Most of the content from TV channels is bad nowadays. I include Netflix and Prime in this assessment. The only good thing about the BBC is that we donât get the dire, woke, advertising pushed down our throats. I much prefer to watch the content from YouTube whilst we are still allowed to view opposing arguments to the WEF and UN narrative but I doubt this will continue due to the EU and UK online safety bill legislation or should I say censorship bill.
Reply Get plenty of BBC ads
October 27, 2023
I’ve watched some great series on Netflix and Prime recently.
October 27, 2023
What are they? I seem to spend hours hunting for something decent to watch but I am enjoying the new series of Bosch at the moment.
October 27, 2023
They even run adverts for ‘rival’ stations!
October 28, 2023
The BBC claim not to advertise. That’s not true. Under the guise of their ‘Arts’ programmes, they are forever advertising films, shows, songs and goodness knows what else. And what is Radio one and Two if not a constant flow of records being made available to the public? I have never understood why the BBC pays royalties to people to advertise (play) their records. These artistes would bust a gut to get airtime for free, as would so called ‘celebs’ who constantly push their own agendas.
October 27, 2023
The BBCâs reporting on climate and energy is so biased that I can no longer believe anything the BBC says without further investigation.
The BBCâs reporting that we have a climate emergency does not fit with the IPCC Working Group 1 (the âscienceâ)âs analysis shown by Table 12.12 in Chapter 12 that no evidence can be found for increasing frost, mean precipitation, river flood, heavy precipitation and fluvial flood, landslide, acidity, hydrological drought, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather (hot and windy), mean wind speed, severe wind storm, tropical cyclones (includes hurricanes and typhoons), sand and dust storms, snow, glacier and ice sheet, heavy snowfall and ice storms, hail, snow avalanche, relative sea level, coastal flood, coastal erosion, marine heatwave, ocean acidity, air pollution weather or radiation at surface.
Only some benign warming (0.14 degrees C per decade) and consequently some ice and snow melting.
Furthermore the BBC has so far failed to report (see the Daily Telegraph yesterday) that the reason why there were no offshore wind bids at the last renewables auction is because the wind energy companies wanted a 90% increase in price, resulting they say in a 70% increase in our electricity prices. You would think this was big newsâŠ.instead theyâre running a report from that the IEA saying that the âWorldâs Shift To Clean Energy is Unstoppableâ.
The work of Happer & Wijhngaarden has shown that increasing our current level of CO2 has negligible additional GHG effect because of IR saturation, work that the IPCC has never refuted, just simply ignored because its remit is to find only anthropogenic reasons for climate change.
October 27, 2023
The BBC does not have a fine reputation. It may like to think it has. However, an increasing many out there disagree. Record numbers now do not pay for a TV licence fee, instead opting for the many streaming services for entertainment.
It is very clear that the BBC is left wing and bias towards conflicting points of view on issues it agrees with. Such as:
– Remaining in the EU.
– Pushing Woke values.
– Supporting Pallistine.
– Anti Tory/right wing viewpoints.
For the BBC to still claim it is ‘impartial’ really is a joke.
The BBC has had more than long enough to sort out their blatant bias. If anything, it is getting worse. Therefore, I support the scrapping of the Licence Fee.
Why should we be forced to fund this rubbish?
October 27, 2023
Just to add to my previous post.
Do I really want to be lectured on the latest woke fad, whilst watching an episode of Dr Who?
No I don’t.
Do I want to listen to bias rubbish about ‘white privilege’ on their website?
No I don’t.
Do I want to see conflicting views not given the time of day on the BBC, and shut down as quickly as possible, when they arise?
No I don’t.
The Government has also facilitated the rise of woke by not pushing back on much of the most ridiculous elements.
The Conservatives need to grasp that the hardcore Labour support will never vote for you. Therefore, the Conservatives need to stop appeasing them – to the detriment of their own support base.
October 27, 2023
I can remember when âDrWhoâ was fun to watch and called light entertainment âŠ.now itâs a documentary in social woke science
October 27, 2023
@ Mark J “Why should we be forced to fund this rubbish?” – indeed, although why forced even if it were not rubbish?
October 27, 2023
In the UK we have the media and the chattering class that like to talk to themselves, they have cottoned onto the word WOKE to define a position, when its origins are elsewhere and have different connotations. In practice and in a similar vein enterprises that have some thing to sell have adopted what âtheyâ like to call ESG(Environmental, Social and Governance) â but donât understand selling or their consumers needs, so they fail.
Hence we get the phrase go WOKE go BROKE
The highly visible organisations that fall into this category are of course the BBC, John Lewis, the likes of Unilever and all the everyday failures. What they all miss is that to keep their shareholders on board they have to sell. The customer in buying first says ‘what will this do for me’, then ‘how much does it cost’ â thatâs it, that is selling. Going off making high-faluting political statements trying to manipulate peoples stance, adding in obscene discrimination to their processes and so on doesnât tell the prospective customer what they will actually do for them. So they loose their market, they add failure to failure.
October 27, 2023
It not to big a jump to apply the same logic above to the Conservative Party or the baulk of the Political Class, for that matter. A MP, a Minister is selling their position and thoughts â the electorate says âwhat will that do for meâ and âhow much will it cost me.â – thats all. Having a Government that in all the places it disperses the Taxpayer money nurturing out and out âdiscriminationâ in place of the âbest of the bestâ delivery shows how lost and up themselves they are.
October 27, 2023
Its not the BBC that is anti the UK
From the MsM
Not backing the UK, but using Taxpayer money to fight the Country – North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) – Climate Change Committee. All fighting to be the most WOKE, cause the most damage and waste UK Taxes.
Comments
It isn’t greener to import LNG rather than extract gas domestically.
It isn’t greener to subcontract all our manufacturing to China and ship goods back.
It isn’t greener to have food arriving in aircraft from all over the world.
Pretending to the public that forcing domestic companies out of business that do the little bit left over is going to save the planet is total nonsense. Time to stop it.
LNG has a delivered CO2 emission of 70kg/boe (barrel of oil equivalent) whereas pipeline gas from the North Sea is 7kg/boe CO2.
October 27, 2023
Ian B : “In the UK we have the media and the chattering class that like to talk to themselves, they have cottoned onto the word WOKE to define a position, when its origins are elsewhere and have different connotations.”
Woke is just communism and its adherents are simply out to destroy western prosperity and democracy with diversity replacing meritocracy and crazy economy destroying ideas such as the Net Zero Strategy which is obviouly not followed by any authoritarian communist state.
Communist/woke idealology starts in our universities totally captured by the fee paying presence of 120,000 Chinese spies stealing our research work and IP as well as indoctrinating our young people.
October 27, 2023
I wonder if the meeting discussed the BBC’s charter and its breaches of it.
October 27, 2023
You mentioned a very dangerous word during your excellent essay. BORROW!!! With its present management, being from the left they are dangerously frivolous with other peoples money, how long before the now internationally committed super beeb comes running back to the bank of mum and dad to be rescued. Any change to the beeb must commence with root and branch change in its management.
October 27, 2023
I comment before reading others opinions but we are almost all of the same mind. The people who refuse to exploit the Last Night of the Proms, The Derby, Lords, etc etc. Because these unique and fantastic array of sporting events epitomises Britain and her achievements, canât exploit the BBC archive.
Indeed the BBC killed British Comedy, the gentle kind quick witted laughs of the Ken Dodd school and replaced a critical aspect of our national character with the snide, nasty, shouting, swearing âmodernâ comics with-an-agenda. The change reflecting their own personality traits rather than ours! Thatâs why the âfar leftâ are never successful, they are failures before they start and know it!
BBC World Service was respected when the bbc was respected. I donât believe either are now.
Letâs save our archive and heritage by dispensing with this current woke corps and make our way in the world as we always did. Laughing and being kind and generous.
October 27, 2023
The BBC did give us French & Saunders, Ab Fab and The Vicar of Dibley. I wonder if they’d pass the woke programmers now? Only Fools and Horses, Black Adder, and The Office, would that pass selection? Car Share?
‘AfterLife’ with Gervais was created with Netflix. The critics hated it but lots of people loved it.
October 27, 2023
For far too long the Brits have been pushed around like a 10st rugby forward against a fit 18st mountain.
October 27, 2023
As far as I am concerned the BBC is a waste of time ; it no longer has the dignity and stature it once had and its rip off licence charge is an outrageous demand . The only content of value is the presentation of the weather forecast . Allowing a news presenter to appear in his – presumably no tie pyjama top is disgusting ; equally the overpaid Lineker should be sacked for airing his private views . Competitors to the BBC produce a better wide range of programmes at no cost to the public . The world does not need the BBC or anything that does not portray true Britishness .
October 27, 2023
Ref Immigration
Your Opposition have today espoused their thoughts on how to deal with the current problem and its cost.
They say employ an extra 1000 in the Home Office to speed the immigration proceedure. These 1000 will be paid for by the increased throughput of assylum seekers who will no longer have to stay in expensive hotels. I ask, where do the opposition propose the AS’s live during the process or after the process. If they are accepted do they magically become self financing If they are rejected is the intention to deport them, and to where , or where will they be housed pending any ideas on what to do with them. The opposition proposal is full of promise at the outset but falls flat on its face during implementation.
Like it or not the only solution is to leave those parts of the ECHR that cause us problems. Declare all illegal arrivals invalid for an assylum claim and ship them back within 48 hours. If there is no international cooperation then a work camp should be created on West Falkland. Call the camp Paris South. If we make it happen the criminal business plan will be seen to be a failure and the flow will dry up.
October 27, 2023
All sounds sensible and doable John, Could I also suggest the BBC considers getting back into the comedy sector of entertainment…..we all miss that.
October 27, 2023
I think it would be best just to distribute shares in the BBC to license fee payers as you suggested the other day (& as I have done on this site in the past), and allow the market to do the rest. The BBC should be re-incorporated as a limited company with articles of assoc and a board of directors. one share per license fee holder. the govt to hold a golden share so the inevitable fear-mongering about Mr Murdoch buying it can be shut down. The articles can cover a service requirement in the UK and also demand political balance (by which should be meant a balance of opinion heard, not that presenters and journalists should pretend to be neutral – they obviously are not). Non-payment of the license fee must be de-criminalised and in time the license fee replaced by subscription fees, advertising etc.
This will kill several birds with one stone. the BBC will become subject to the disciplines of the market and will be likely to grow its commercial business much faster as a result. Political bias will be cured by the market mechanism of losing subscribers. best of all it will be immensely popular as the shares (which must be a tax free distribution) would be worth at least several hundred pounds each, possibly into the thousands once the market valued the potential. there could be a big boost from this.
October 27, 2023
How come the West has had no effective policy to respond to Russia’s creation of hypersonic missiles (back in 2017)?
We got ourselves involved in a daft war in Iraq and Afghanistan – that cost a lot in terms of soldiers’ lives, money and time and energy on how to deal with the real threats of the world i.e. rogue states building hypersonic missiles and other stealth / dangerous weapons.
And when we should be focusing on training and financing our armed forces to be even more like a special operations force with really high-tech equipment and working closer with our secret service to deal with specific, niche problems – instead of sending in lots of troops into vast areas such as Afghanistan.
October 27, 2023
We also need to focus on building a high-tech defence wall (not literal wall) around the UK to defend ourselves from hypersonic missiles and drones etc as well as a defence mechanism to deal with drones within the UK and with defence systems outside the UK as well to destroy hyepronsic missiles and drones etc
And to do this, we have to work with other countries to build this tech and locate it outside the UK too. It will cost a lot but will also help boost the economy in other areas, in particular our high tech industry. And we can sell our defence systems to other countries too.
October 27, 2023
We also need to build some kind of (metaphorical) wall around the UK from immigration.
So we need to build 2 x metaphorical walls:
1) One from hypersonic missiles and other deadly weapons
2) And another from immigration
October 27, 2023
And so we need to start talking about AGGRESSIVE Zionism (that creates more problems that it resolves, long-term) and MODERATE / FAIR-MINDED Zionism (that is the Zionism that will gain long-term peace in Israel for the Israeli people). And of course, between AGGRESSIVE Palestinians and moderate / fair-minded Palestinians).
(And being moderate does NOT mean being a pushover / wimp / doormat. But that you CHOOSE your moment when to be FIRM and when to be more MALLEABLE – like in a healthy relationship in marriage or running a successful high tech business or something!).
October 27, 2023
And in war. Constantly aggressive armies eventually die by the sword – and causing misery for everyone in the process. Achieving nothing but self-destruction (as well as mindless destruction of others).
October 27, 2023
Hamas is the elected government of Gaza. Wishful thinking on your part wonât change that. In the elections they were the largest single party. The policy of Hamas is the complete elimination of Israel.
October 27, 2023
…and Hamas killed off al political opposition and have been in power for 15+ years …just another dictatorship, appeased by the west
October 27, 2023
Although commercialisation would clearly benefit the BBC and the UK, I think it would be a mistake to leave the UK side in its current tax-funded form. Especially if licencing laws remain as they are, such that it is a criminal offence to watch *any* live broadcast without a licence.
Part of the problem is the breadth of modern BBC output. The plethora of local/regional radio and TV stations prevents new entrants to the market. They have at least 6 national radio stations and a number of national TV stations in addition to a number of smaller ones, some of which (according to ratings) have “no detectable numbers” of viewers i.e. ostensibly zero viewers. For example, I believe BBC Alba was in that category.
UK tax-funded activities must be pared back to news output only – at most. Even that is suspect since they cannot be trusted to be impartial.
This is the reason they resist the commercialisation pressures – they know that their lefty output will not survive contact with the real world. They have seen the demise of other media organisations trying to make money in that space, so they realise that the only way they can continue to pump out their propaganda is to have it funded by the taxpayer.
Reply Another topic for another day. What is public service broadcasting? How much of it do we want? How to pay for it.
October 28, 2023
reply to reply …is there an example anywhere in the world that is not quite simply -propaganda, usually to be the voice of a ruling regime. The BBC promotes what they want to happen, not to shore up or provide endless lies about the regime.
October 27, 2023
The BBCâs culture encourages inefficiency. I listened to a BBC radio programme the other day (here https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001r0cl) where a DJ was playing pop records for 2 hours. At the end of the show (at 00:49:13) he thanked 2 producers and a studio manager. How can it take 4 people to play records? What does a âstudio managerâ do?
The BBC could never survive in a commercial environment with this culture.
Also, it seems that only the BBC is crowing about how well it is respected abroad. I get different feedback from people abroad who find the BBC patronising to non-English people where they appear to treat them like helpless children. This shows a lack of respect for foreign people and an attitude of British superiority.
As well as a change of culture, the BBC would need a change of attitude before it could attempt to compete internationally.
October 27, 2023
I personally think that sitting watching TV is out dated.
Ar better to dip into news etc on ones phone in quiet minuted.
October 27, 2023
you have a few seconds concentration span?
October 27, 2023
Off topic
I hear it’s now legal for smart meter installers to break into your home and force a smart meter on you – or face imprisonment if you refuse them entry!
Very democratic [sarc]!!
What has happened to this country? And what does it say about those politicians who voted for it?
October 28, 2023
Not true. Smart meters cannot be forced onto the customers. The recent ânoiseâ on the news was about prepayment meters. Not the same.
October 28, 2023
But only smart-meters with enabled wifi network link is, by law, to be fitted to every new build
October 28, 2023
With the new Energy Act the law has now changed. The Minister can order that smart meters be fitted by force.
November 4, 2023
Wrong, smart meters are not mandatory. Only reason why a customer might be forced to have a smart meter is if the present meter is more than 20 years old and/or the energy provider can prove that it does not provide accurate readings.
October 27, 2023
Dear Sir John,
This is music to my ears – I agree with every word.
The BBC was a partner in the subscription service ‘Britbox’, but gave up its share to ITV, though it still provides content. Not sure why this is the case. I like Britbox but feel there’s a great deal more content that could be provided, and that the service could be promoted more to increase its subscriber base.
More power to you in pushing this agenda.
SR
October 27, 2023
Well it has to be one thing or another. Either a purely tax-funded public information service or a non tax funded entertainment business. This “cake and eat-it” attitude reminds me of certain private schools (which I shall not name) asking former pupils (from when the schools were solely tax-funded) for money. NO. Take the business route and fund yourself!
October 27, 2023
Mr. Redwood mentions the âtalentâ a few times. You do not need to be talented to read the news from an auto prompt. What talent – other than the talent to irritate – do the various DJs on Radio 2 have?
October 27, 2023
The BBC doesnât approve of capitalism.
October 28, 2023
Defend the BBC
November 2, 2023
Jaw-dropping watching the BBC out-BBC itself during its coverage of the parliamentary debate on excess deaths. No fewer than nine egregious slogans were cycled onscreen throughout MP Andrew Bridgenâs speech, presumably in a failed attempt to undermine the many verifiable statements he was making.
An honest media should be functioning as a watchdog; a line of defence between the public and forces of power and influence; holding said forces to account. Not simply acting as a mouthpiece and propaganda arm for them. Weâve seen the results of the latter over the last three years or more, and it has been disastrous.
The public deserve better than this.