The BBC

BBC Three comedy for instance is consistently terrible, the only bright spots in my memory being People Just Do Nothing (comprising one episode) and Ja'ime - Private School Girl (bought from Australia).

Comedy obviously most specific thing ever taste-wise (I can't stand those ultra-broad Chris Lilley shows, say, which seem weirdly racist to me), but I feel like there are enough innovative spots in the long list of shows they commissioned to make 'consistently terrible' not true: Nighty Night, High Spirits, 15 Storeys High, Mighty Boosh, Snuff Box, Pulling...

75% of 16- to 24-year-olds' TV viewing is still of live broadcast, though

How has that number changed over the last five years though? Even over the last year? You'd expect that number to be a lot smaller in two or three years' time alone.

had forgotten 15 storeys high. was a long time ago...

Ideal might be the best thing BBC3 have ever shown.

was that the line at the top of the "close it down" report?

Pulling is my favourite ever BBC3 show but they didn't give it much of a push or a third series (I also loved Snuff Box and that was buried six feet deep in the schedule) so I wonder whether the best stuff will actually do better in a digital environment where shows can earn their followings outside of a channel identity that older viewers find offputting. That's the pint-half-full argument anyway.

The three half full pints and a package of crisps argument

a channel identity that older viewers find offputting.

Yeah, this. To the extent that when people have brought up good shows broadcast on BBC3 in its defence, I realised I'd forgotten that they were on that channel at all, so successful has the BBC3's marketing of itself as the home of crass dumbed-down rubbish been.

the BBC3

lol

a channel identity that older viewers find offputting.

Yeah, well i doubt most 16- to 24-year-olds find Radio 4's identity terribly welcoming either.

I am not really a Radio 4 person but I admire it and appreciate its existence and sometimes think, maybe I should listen to this constantly.

I also don't find radio 4#s identity terribly welcoming. Radio David Fucking Cameron.

Pramface was BBC 3, wasn't it? That was ok.

series 3 is on at the moment.

Yeah, well i doubt most 16- to 24-year-olds find Radio 4's identity terribly welcoming either.

True. So what? I'm sure the same scenario would apply there - there are certain Radio 4 shows that would find a broader audience if they were on a digital platform.

they are

matt lucas started out on bbc2 right?

Radio 4 I think

Reasonably certain that most of the standups they mention started as standups, regardless of TV exposure.

I like that matt lucas thing where he plays a lazy and stupid African woman shop assistant

that's almost as funny as Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's traffic warden sketch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1BP3AHLZWw

Yeah that was awful too. Only thing I liked in 'Harry and Paul' was Whitehouse's intellectual working class man, and the soviet style opening credits.

should have gone with parking papageno and done it all in the style of the magic flute

Stats here are amazing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26492684

155,000 given criminal record in 2012 for not paying license fee, accounting for more than 10% of criminal cases.

70 jailed.

Cases

Not sure where the extra 'cases' at the end came from there.

70 jailed.

Pretty sure you don't get sent to jail for not having a TV licence. You can go to jail if you don't pay a fine, which might sound like the same thing but it applies to all kinds of minor crime.

Yes, that's what i assume that they are referring to here. The last time i had a serious look at this was about ten years ago and, at the time iirc, courts pretty much stopped sending people to jail for non-payment of fines relating to TV licenses. Seeing it go back up to 70 is remarkable. The fines disproportionately affect women and (obviously) those dealing with the most extreme poverty so there was a real push to manage things more humanely. Giving people in difficult situations a criminal record for non-payment of what is effectively a debt / bill in the first place is unusual. Non-payment of utility bills / debts isn't generally a criminal offence.

utility companies can cut you off* but the bbc can't

(* actually i think they aren't allowed to deny people such fundamentals as electricty. so instead they install pre-payment meters which effectively do the same thing.)

Isn't non-payment of council tax a criminal thing for the same reason? The council can't turn off the streetlights etc.

They could blindfold you.

Council tax debts are primarily civil offences. Persistent non-payment can lead to criminal conviction where you had the means to pay in the first place. It's not a criminal matter in the first instance so failing to pay won't mean you automatically end up with a criminal record.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10701148/Noel-Edmonds-Its-time-to-sell-the-BBC...and-we-could-buy-it.html

Original article is behind the times paywall. It's every bit as nuts as you'd expect:

Obviously from a business perspective we are not about to reveal our plans in detail, but our new BBC will not be encumbered with the infrastructure and practices of traditional broadcasting. Today every phone owner is, in effect, a broadcaster. Your smart TV is a studio and your PC is a radio station. You are the master of your media. Such mastery makes a mockery of an organisation that operates more than 50 channels at a cost of £5bn.

Under our plans, the new BBC becomes as important to the consumer as the hardware without which none of us can now function. We refer to this as BBC Gaia — a lifestyle in which the new BBC is the default position for all consumer information, education and entertainment. It’s our 21st-century Reithian vision.

nothing says Lord Reith like Deal or No Deal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAo-xyIEEkI

^ we refer to this as BBC Gaia

RIP the (Newsnight) Review Show
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9905765/The-Review-Show-does-culture-matter-less-than-cookery.html

the review show was fucking terrible, good riddance

however, what will bidisha do now??

too soon?

That article is from match 2013

March 2013

once a month is still TOO MUCH

The final episode is this Sunday, apparently.

http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2014/03/bbc-axes-review-show-20-years/

I hope they bring back Tom Paulin one last time, if only in order for him to call Harry Hill's X-Factor musical Zionist propaganda, or something.

I just saw the last episode without knowing it was being cancelled, I hadn't seen it in a few months. It and Culture Show and any other similar programmes used to annoy me a lot but I enjoyed them enough to watch them regularly for something like 10 or more years; sometimes there was really good stuff in there.
I'd prefer to think the internet has replaced these shows than the idea that anyone interested in this sort of stuff has dwindled that badly.
BBC 4 really has turned to shit. I don't think I'd mind if BBC was sold, especially if it meant people stopped getting harrassed about tv licences, because I've always dreamed of not having a tv someday.

BBC Broadcast was already sold to an Autralian hedge fund several years ago. What other bits do you think should be sold? And who do you think should be the buyer?

Don't think Robert cares as long as his 'dream' "of not having a tv someday" is realized.

I'll admit I don't know much about the issue and if I am curious enough, I hope all the facts don't take too many hours to read.

I don't even have a dream.

just take responsibility for your own life and get rid of your own damned TV and leave the BBC intact for those of us who want it and appreciate it, even for its flaws.

and who want to pay for it