UK government announces major review of the size, scope, and funding of the BBC - Polidicks

[url]http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/16/bbc-review-government-green-paper-john-whittingdale[/url] [quote]Culture secretary John Whittingdale has announced a fundamental review of the size of the BBC, what it does and the way it is funded and questioned whether the corporation should continue to strive to be “all things to all people”. Unveiling the government’s green paper on the future of the BBC on Thursday, Whittingdale said the scale and scope of the BBC had grown exponentially in the last decade and said the time was right to question “whether this particular range of services best serves licence fee payers”.[/quote] [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-33551874[/url] [quote]Culture Secretary John Whittingdale told MPs a decision had to be made on whether the BBC should try to do "all things" or become more "precise". Launching a Green Paper on the corporation's future, he said he wanted the corporation to "thrive". But the BBC said the review suggested "a much diminished, less popular, BBC." "That would be bad for Britain and would not be the BBC that the public has known and loved for over 90 years," it said in a statement. Speaking in Parliament, Mr Whittingdale said the consultation would raise four fundamental questions: • What is the overall purpose of the BBC? • What services and content should it provide? • How should the BBC be funded? • How should the BBC be governed and regulated?[/quote] A public consultation has been opened and members of the public can [url=https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/bbc-charter-review-public-consultation]submit their views through gov.uk[/url]

My favourite thing is how the BBC reports on the BBC. It reminds me of that Onion thing about Putin finding out about Putin trying to assassinate Putin.

[QUOTE=Jamsponge;48221317]My favourite thing is how the BBC reports on the BBC. It reminds me of that Onion thing about Putin finding out about Putin trying to assassinate Putin.[/QUOTE] I like it, it kind of makes it seem like actual journalism rather than reading a blog post the head posted.

Outside of the news the BBC is steadily growing to be an irrelevance to me On-demand content is the future and that's why if I want to watch anything, generally I either buy it on Google Play and watch it with the Chromecast or go on Netflix. The BBC to its limited credit occasionally releases a production that raises my eyebrow and is actually particularly good, the latest two being "The Game" and "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. " which I both enjoyed. That said, every other night of the week, there's generally complete shit-all good content to watch. And you pay close to £150 a year for this if you own a TV. Iplayer's a borderline broken piece of shit on the web, on your smart TV, and on your tablet. It's been lazily constructed for all 3 platforms and has quite a number of problems. When it works, its a reasonable take on the on-demand trend. E.g - I've got a Samsung TV, sometimes when I'm watching something on Iplayer, if I pause the playback and play it again, I'll get no sound at all even after power on/power off, despite fiddling around with everything. I searched up the cause and its because there's "an issue" with Samsung TV's that the BBC is "working on." (ref: their own site)This is a known issue that's been around for at least a year.

^ the only bad thing about the BBC is the news. So bias it's almost unbelievable.

[QUOTE=fragger0;48222022]^ the only bad thing about the BBC is the news. So bias it's almost unbelievable.[/QUOTE] What? Compared to the other main TV news (Sky, ITV, Russia Today) the BBC is a paragon of good journalism. How on earth could you think that the BBC News is outrageously biased?

[QUOTE=fragger0;48222022]^ the only bad thing about the BBC is the news. So bias it's almost unbelievable.[/QUOTE] You do realize that because the BBC is funded through the license fee it is obligated to remain as non-biased as possible.

[QUOTE=fragger0;48222022]^ the only bad thing about the BBC is the news. So bias it's almost unbelievable.[/QUOTE] I don't even know how to respond, because there's nothing to respond to except blind assertion. Give me an example of BBC bias. Given though that it receives a fairly even number of complaints from both sides (though a few more from the right given their general stance against a state owned broadcaster) it seems very unbiased. [editline]16th July 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Dr.Critic;48221500]Outside of the news the BBC is steadily growing to be an irrelevance to me On-demand content is the future and that's why if I want to watch anything, generally I either buy it on Google Play and watch it with the Chromecast or go on Netflix. The BBC to its limited credit occasionally releases a production that raises my eyebrow and is actually particularly good, the latest two being "The Game" and "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. " which I both enjoyed. That said, every other night of the week, there's generally complete shit-all good content to watch. And you pay close to £150 a year for this if you own a TV. Iplayer's a borderline broken piece of shit on the web, on your smart TV, and on your tablet. It's been lazily constructed for all 3 platforms and has quite a number of problems. When it works, its a reasonable take on the on-demand trend. E.g - I've got a Samsung TV, sometimes when I'm watching something on Iplayer, if I pause the playback and play it again, I'll get no sound at all even after power on/power off, despite fiddling around with everything. I searched up the cause and its because there's "an issue" with Samsung TV's that the BBC is "working on." (ref: their own site)This is a known issue that's been around for at least a year.[/QUOTE] How is iPlayer even broken its always worked completely fine on both my phone and on the internet, and because I'm not a dweeb I don't own a smart TV

[QUOTE=Mythman;48222188]What? Compared to the other main TV news (Sky, ITV, Russia Today) the BBC is a paragon of good journalism. How on earth could you think that the BBC News is outrageously biased?[/QUOTE] It's generally pretty good with journalism, especially the stuff they put on TV, but I personally believe that the standard of the journalism on their website is worse at the moment than it was a few years ago. Most of it is good, but you get a few articles that are pretty sloppy or poor. Not to call it terrible, and it is pretty unbiased, but some if it can be irritating.

[QUOTE=fragger0;48222022]^ the only bad thing about the BBC is the news. So bias it's almost unbelievable.[/QUOTE] I feel that news channel is a bit over-reliant on people giving their opinions. I don't care about the biased opinions of the Daily Mail and The Mirror's news editors, or of the increasingly ill informed general public. Just report the news! On the other hand, the BBC News website is fantastic. Just reporting, and sometimes with an analyst at the bottom of the article giving details as to what the story could lead to in different ways.

[QUOTE=Dr.Critic;48221500]Outside of the news the BBC is steadily growing to be an irrelevance to me On-demand content is the future and that's why if I want to watch anything, generally I either buy it on Google Play and watch it with the Chromecast or go on Netflix. The BBC to its limited credit occasionally releases a production that raises my eyebrow and is actually particularly good, the latest two being "The Game" and "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. " which I both enjoyed. That said, every other night of the week, there's generally complete shit-all good content to watch. And you pay close to £150 a year for this if you own a TV. Iplayer's a borderline broken piece of shit on the web, on your smart TV, and on your tablet. It's been lazily constructed for all 3 platforms and has quite a number of problems. When it works, its a reasonable take on the on-demand trend. E.g - I've got a Samsung TV, sometimes when I'm watching something on Iplayer, if I pause the playback and play it again, I'll get no sound at all even after power on/power off, despite fiddling around with everything. I searched up the cause and its because there's "an issue" with Samsung TV's that the BBC is "working on." (ref: their own site)This is a known issue that's been around for at least a year.[/QUOTE] iPlayer is literally the best catchup service in the UK. It has flawless chromecast support, it does SD and HD streaming, it's fast, the apps are well designed, it doesn't need you to login, you can pause and rewind live TV. If your TV's implementation is bad, then I'd say that might well be on Samsung, and I'm not sure how you can say that the tablet (assuming Android?) or web versions work badly, they'd always been flawless for me.

[QUOTE=Memobot;48222258]I feel that news channel is a bit over-reliant on people giving their opinions. I don't care about the biased opinions of the Daily Mail and The Mirror's news editors, or of the increasingly ill informed general public. Just report the news! On the other hand, the BBC News website is fantastic. Just reporting, and sometimes with an analyst at the bottom of the article giving details as to what the story could lead to in different ways.[/QUOTE] You're watching the news channel. They have 60 minutes to fill with only 15 minutes of "breaking" news to report on at any one time, then it all starts again the next hour. Of course they're going to bloat it with opinions and interviews and whatever they can. Just watch the proper news programme on BBC One at 6. That's still produced to the same standard of reporting the entire day's events it always has been, even before 24 hour rolling news and internet access.

[QUOTE=fragger0;48222022]^ the only bad thing about the BBC is the news. So bias it's almost unbelievable.[/QUOTE] Bruh if you want bias media monopolies come to America and listen to some Fox News.

You want to keep the BBC at least as an unbiased news reporter. Otherwise you get a 'Murcia situation where all media have somewhat of an agenda more or less.

[QUOTE=fragger0;48222022]^ the only bad thing about the BBC is the news. So bias it's almost unbelievable.[/QUOTE] Haha that reminds me. I knew someone in college who said that the BBC was really biased because of how pro gay it is in its reporting, and how in the BBC TV shows, they have gay characters and everyone acts like it's okay.

The BBC is terribly bias. They've been found so many times to pick 'random members of the public' to talk about issues that they've used many times before because they know what stance they're going to take. They might not be as bad as fox but they are extremely bias towards the right. They always use guests to project the bias instead of having the news anchor say it, is there a difference? no. They pick and choose which viewpoints they want to air & they continually refuse to report any sort of protest against the right, even when said things are trending all over social media. They also miss out a lot of stories where our government is involved with another country that commits a negative act eg israel. Also they are SO royalist it hurts, always pandering to the royal family and avoiding anything negative about them. By the way, I'm only talking about the TV BBC news. The website and programmes such as news-night etc are different. [QUOTE=Thomo_UK;48222206]You do realize that because the BBC is funded through the license fee it is obligated to remain as non-biased as possible.[/QUOTE] Yes.... that doesn't change the fact they ARE bias though, just because they're obligated doesn't mean they follow it. Companies are obligated to pay tax but they don't.

[QUOTE=fragger0;48228515]The BBC is terribly bias. They've been found so many times to pick 'random members of the public' to talk about issues that they've used many times before because they know what stance they're going to take. They might not be as bad as fox but they are extremely bias towards the right. They always use guests to project the bias instead of having the news anchor say it, is there a difference? no. They pick and choose which viewpoints they want to air & they continually refuse to report any sort of protest against the right, even when said things are trending all over social media. By the way, I'm only talking about the TV BBC news. The website and programmes such as news-night etc are different.[/QUOTE] I'd rather have BBC than not have the BBC. People go on about state funded media being the devil and private media being some kind of gold standard. Private media is sensationalist, bias, agenda pushing, partisan bullshit. If I want the facts of a news story I'll go to BBC (or independent or guardian coz i'm a leftie) if I want opinionated crap I'll go to whatever other junk is on offer. Private media make their own money so they have to sensationalise and print "celeb" nonsense to stay on air, their owners/funding usually has an agenda which they want pushing, so the media has to push it to stay in business. It's in politicians interests to be rid of the bbc, they have friends in the private media, people who see the bbc as competition and if the bbc stops printing unbias articles about them then the market will be saturated with bias articles, articles which make their opponents look like buffoons (see media reaction to milliband) or articles which playdown/ignore major scandals. Then there's funding, UKIP received over £1 million from the express and ukip goes on to try and get rid of the bbc. Anyone who joins the anti-bbc circlejerk doesn't know what they are trying to be rid of. Our TV cost per month is cheaper than most places and generally has less adverts (compare to america), our news is less bias than most others and generally its pretty good spending of the tax payers money.

[QUOTE=Mythman;48222188]What? Compared to the other main TV news (Sky, ITV, Russia Today) the BBC is a paragon of good journalism. How on earth could you think that the BBC News is outrageously biased?[/QUOTE] When you compare it to something neutral like Channel 4 News, you can clearly tell how bias it is.

[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;48228550]quote[/QUOTE] It's clear you've not read my previous comment. I love the BBC, I would hate to lose it & I would hate it to rely on advertising. I love BBCs programming, I just feel the news is bias as fuck compared to say channel 4 news. Don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about and go on about all that stuff about celeb stuff - I know, I hate that stuff more than anyone, but to pretend the BBC doesn't push the agenda of the party in power at the time is frankly naive. If you're a lefty and you think the BBC isn't the least bias news source then I don't even know what to say to you. "their owners/funding usually has an agenda which they want pushing, so the media has to push it to stay in business" the bbc does this, just with the government, not corporations - which is worse in my opinion.

[QUOTE=Dr.Critic;48221500]Outside of the news the BBC is steadily growing to be an irrelevance to me On-demand content is the future and that's why if I want to watch anything, generally I either buy it on Google Play and watch it with the Chromecast or go on Netflix. The BBC to its limited credit occasionally releases a production that raises my eyebrow and is actually particularly good, the latest two being "The Game" and "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. " which I both enjoyed. That said, every other night of the week, there's generally complete shit-all good content to watch. And you pay close to £150 a year for this if you own a TV. [B]Iplayer's a borderline broken piece of shit on the web, on your smart TV, and on your tablet. It's been lazily constructed for all 3 platforms and has quite a number of problems. When it works, its a reasonable take on the on-demand trend.[/B] E.g - I've got a Samsung TV, sometimes when I'm watching something on Iplayer, if I pause the playback and play it again, I'll get no sound at all even after power on/power off, despite fiddling around with everything. I searched up the cause and its because there's "an issue" with Samsung TV's that the BBC is "working on." (ref: their own site)This is a known issue that's been around for at least a year.[/QUOTE] BBC iplayer is pretty great imo, had no problems with it. Hell they even do HD 60fps streaming on some programmes now

[QUOTE=frankie penis;48228618]BBC iplayer is pretty great imo, had no problems with it. Hell they even do HD 60fps streaming on some programmes now[/QUOTE] Yeah iPlayer is great never had any issues with it. Love how if you watch one of the channels live on it you can restart programmes from the beginning. Good feature.

[QUOTE=Thomo_UK;48222206]You do realize that because the BBC is funded through the license fee it is obligated to remain as non-biased as possible.[/QUOTE] Typically the BBC is very pro-whoever is the establishment right now in order to save its own skin

[QUOTE=massaki;48228578]When you compare it to something neutral like Channel 4 News, you can clearly tell how bias it is.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't call Channel 4 neutral, it has a fairly obvious left-leaning stance. The recent coverage of Greece has shown this with their large support of Syriza. I mean their slogan was 'Born Risky' - it's appealing to a younger, more left leaning audience. [QUOTE=fragger0;48228608]It's clear you've not read my previous comment. I love the BBC, I would hate to lose it & I would hate it to rely on advertising. I love BBCs programming, I just feel the news is bias as fuck compared to say channel 4 news. Don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about and go on about all that stuff about celeb stuff - I know, I hate that stuff more than anyone, but [B]to pretend the BBC doesn't push the agenda of the party in power at the time is frankly naive[/B]. If you're a lefty and you think the BBC isn't the least bias news source then I don't even know what to say to you. [/QUOTE] For the first bit, see above. As to your second point: the BBC only seem bias due to the way they operate. I mean when the cover a news story they give the government view, the opposition view and maybe the minor parties views. I don't see anything wrong with this system. And to be fair, the BBC always [I]looks like[/I] it is supporting the government is due to this fact. When Tony Blair was in power the Right-wing media were screaming about bias - now David Cameron is in power the Left-wing is screaming about bias. (And now the Conservatives are in complete control they remember the Tony Blair years and want to dismantle the BBC's 'Left Wing Bias'.)

[QUOTE=Mythman;48228774] As to your second point: the BBC only seem bias due to the way they operate. I mean when the cover a news story they give the government view, the opposition view and maybe the minor parties views. I don't see anything wrong with this system. And to be fair, the BBC always [I]looks like[/I] it is supporting the government is due to this fact. When Tony Blair was in power the Right-wing media were screaming about bias - now David Cameron is in power the Left-wing is screaming about bias. (And now the Conservatives are in complete control they remember the Tony Blair years and want to dismantle the BBC's 'Left Wing Bias'.)[/QUOTE] Theres a reason it appears bias to whoever is in power at the time... because it is. It flip flops to whoever is in power and panders to their viewpoints. If that isn't being bias then I don't know what is. I'm beginning to think you haven't really watched it that much.

[QUOTE=Thomo_UK;48222206]You do realize that because the BBC is funded through the license fee it is obligated to remain as non-biased as possible.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Shibbey;48228686]Typically the BBC is very pro-whoever is the establishment right now in order to save its own skin[/QUOTE] These seem to be mutually contradictory. I hear people say all the time that the BBC is unbiased because it's publicly funded and obliged to be even-handed, but if it consistently reports favorably on the administration as a matter of self-interest then it's just biased in a different way.

[QUOTE=fragger0;48228515]The BBC is terribly bias. They've been found so many times to pick 'random members of the public' to talk about issues that they've used many times before because they know what stance they're going to take. They might not be as bad as fox but they are extremely bias towards the right. They always use guests to project the bias instead of having the news anchor say it, is there a difference? no. They pick and choose which viewpoints they want to air & they continually refuse to report any sort of protest against the right, even when said things are trending all over social media. They also miss out a lot of stories where our government is involved with another country that commits a negative act eg israel. Also they are SO royalist it hurts, always pandering to the royal family and avoiding anything negative about them. By the way, I'm only talking about the TV BBC news. The website and programmes such as news-night etc are different. Yes.... that doesn't change the fact they ARE bias though, just because they're obligated doesn't mean they follow it. Companies are obligated to pay tax but they don't.[/QUOTE] No no no, they're biased towards the left [url]http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/leaders-debate-ukip-wants-an-inquiry-into-the-leftwing-bias-of-the-bbc-and-suggests-audience-members-lied-about-their-political-beliefs-10183568.html[/url] Or wait, maybe it is the right [url]http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bbc-accused-ofpolitical-bias--on-the-right-not-the-left-9129639.html[/url] No I'm sure it's the left [url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3074267/BBC-pay-price-anti-Tory-bias-writes-LEO-MCKINSTRY.html[/url] Or... maybe it's the right [url]http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/17/bbc-leftwing-bias-non-existent-myth[/url]

[QUOTE=smurfy;48228835]No no no, they're biased towards the left [url]http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/leaders-debate-ukip-wants-an-inquiry-into-the-leftwing-bias-of-the-bbc-and-suggests-audience-members-lied-about-their-political-beliefs-10183568.html[/url] Or wait, maybe it is the right [url]http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bbc-accused-ofpolitical-bias--on-the-right-not-the-left-9129639.html[/url] No I'm sure it's the left [url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3074267/BBC-pay-price-anti-Tory-bias-writes-LEO-MCKINSTRY.html[/url] Or... maybe it's the right [url]http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/17/bbc-leftwing-bias-non-existent-myth[/url][/QUOTE] This is exactly my point - they're bias to the right now because the tories are in power. They flip flop between whoever is in power at the time. Their reports are far from neutral.

[QUOTE=catbarf;48228816]These seem to be mutually contradictory. I hear people say all the time that the BBC is unbiased because it's publicly funded and obliged to be even-handed, but if it consistently reports favorably on the administration as a matter of self-interest then it's just biased in a different way.[/QUOTE] At least here in Denmark the national television is funded through the tv license, which isn't a tax as such. This means that the people in charge has no say in how DR spends its money (though of course they could abolish or make the license smaller). I don't think many people would argue that DR could be less biased in a significant way.

[QUOTE=fragger0;48228861]This is exactly my point - they're bias to the right now because the tories are in power. They flip flop between whoever is in power at the time. Their reports are far from neutral.[/QUOTE] I still can't see why you see a huge problem with the BBC; the government will always feature heavily in any news agenda. It doesn't mean that the BBC is biased towards whoever is in power. Can you give me some examples of where you see BBC bias towards the government? And explain why it's a problem? EDIT: I mean you are either arguing that the BBC is bias towards the institution of the government OR you're arguing that the BBC is biased towards a particular party. The first is hard to argue and I don't see a reason to argue it & the second has been shown that the BBC neither leans left nor right (despite the cries of both sides).

We have the same problem here with the state owned television. It's bad reporting, extremely biased and just generally shit, and none likes it. Even less since they tried to push for the TV fee to apply for everyone owning computer equipment, including smart watches, phones etc.