Funny old world…does anyone at the BBC have a clue?
They make the iPlayer inaccessible for anyone without a licence and yet chuck stuff on YouTube for free…
The question has to be asked…what is the point of the iPlayer when the BBC could have a channel on YouTube and what was the point of spending £100 million on a digital archive, that never materialised, when they could have made their material for journo’s to reference privately available on YouTube…or you could ask why when YouTube was originally set up for about £1 million the BBC couldn’t set up its own film library for a staggering £100 million?
I suppose YouTube means that the BBC is being interspersed with adverts as it’s by definition a private sector commercial model. I have an ad-blocker running on YouTube but I imagine if you’re watching a 1 hour long drama, you don’t want it interspersed with adverts for Justin Bieber concerts or mobile phone deals. Most of the good (full length) BBC stuff uploaded to YouTube is also illegally uploaded, you quite often see the speed changed, borders added or the frame flipped horizontally in order to evade the copyright checks.
On the topic of platform though, I thought for a long time there was supposed to be some kind of internet tv site being planned that linked everything up (Sky, Channel 4, ITV etc) – wasn’t Alan Sugar (who made the Sky boxes) meant to be in charge of overseeing it?
I watch many full length films on You Tube with no interruptions from adverts. Also I see on You Tube a range of news outlets, including the BBC.
I follow my favourite comics, musicians, and political movements, see recorded concerts, and just dial for any piece of music I want to hear.
I think You Tube and other outlets yet to come will finish the BBC, and people – even Tory MPs – will wonder why the Government is backing their TV Tax
Is it possible that they ‘authorise’ the footage that suits, and come down like a ton of bricks on any that strays from the good of the hive narrative?
An extension of their editorial policy of propaganda and censorship into the social broadcast areas, if you will.
Youtube is beginning to censor “hate speech” i.e. channels which challenge liberal progressive values. It will soon be little better than the BBC.
Crist, there’s quite a lot of discussion on Youtube about this at present. Those banned from Youtube can of course go to other platforms at present. It will be more difficult, however, when the banning process moves to ISP level, so that ‘thought criminals’ will not have access to the net at all. Apparently though techies are already working on ways round this, so hopefully it won’t be a major problem. You can’t kill ideas.
I can’t verify if BBC uploads to YouTube are accessible out of the UK (so you would have to be in the UK to view YT vids uploaded by them). Perhaps someone abroad can solve this?
On the wider issue, I find myself watching less and less broadcast TV. I was on the phone yesterday to Sky to cancel my subscription because of this – but ended up being offered their entire movie channels offering (in HD, too!) for a ridiculous discount, just to keep me subscribed! Competition – don’t you love it?
I watch YouTube for all my news and commentary on current affairs. BBC, CH4, Sky News UK are all an insult to intelligent, fair-minded people. Fake news. Liberal regressive propaganda outfits broadcasting their toxic bile 24/7 for anyone who still hasn’t been red-pilled by the alternative media online.
The original concept of FreeView was developed by ITV and Granada i seem to remember but fell into severe financial difficulties on the roll out. The BBC were bitterly opposed to digital TV (as it would have undermine their own output at the time). The government of the day (and I am unsure who was in office, pleaded with the BBC to take the digital TV project over, in return for (public financed) millions for the BBC to reinvest in new technology and take a major stake in it. In retirn the BBC got a huge increase in License fee funding (setting their own license fee), whilst buying in (and replacing) large parts of antiquated BBC infrastructure and converting everything to ‘digital’ and all its old archives footage to be made available for FreeView was part of the agreement by Westminster.
The BBC were afraid that commercial TV would make the BBC TV license unsustainable (or redundant) so they dragged their feet ad spent most of the money on upgrading its own equipment and the iPlayer project (BBC archives and upgrades) whilst the commercial sector had to fund everything itself out of advertising.
The BBC saw this as an ‘endorsement’ (by the government of the day) and was able to undermine the entire digital TV project by amending it so that PAY for TV was not available on FreeView (at all) and thus crippled pay-cable TV and made it difficult for ITV which relied exclusively on advertising for revenue. The BBc was publicly funded (and they did not have to risk fund anything themselves and any mistakes they made could be written off at taxpayers expense. (No danger of the License fee revenue being reduced through incompetence).
The engagement of the BBC in digital TV (FreeView) created a gap in future quality TV programming which with was later filled by SKY TV. The BBC were totally opposed to competition of any type and this got around the UK rules as it was broadcast via satellite from Luxembourg.
Worse still was the fact that ITV recovered and was able to take full advantage of multi-channel digital TV era and challenge the BBC dominance (in so called) DRAMA and News.
So everything the BBC fought for (is lost) it has no true financial (or bias) independence, it has no money (expect the license fee and indirect sponsorship from EU or Saudi) it does sells BBC archives to FreeView channels (via commercial operators) and has manages to loose three-quarters of its entire income in essential ‘overheads’ and able to claim (less than 25% in sales (mostly Dr. Who and what was ‘Top Gear’ which has never recovered and which it loost to Amazon Prime. The BBC however hope to emulate NetFlix by offering a personalised ‘BBC archives’ of all its channels on BBC iPlayer which is maintained by SIEMENS (a german company). Ditto Radio online (most of it) including Classic FM.
The BBC has eighteen (yes 18) BBC limited companies all wholly owned by the BBC itself (so it does not have to explain itself to mere mortals under FOI request of newspapers unless a scandal breaks, which is more routine than not. Over a hundred BBC top line presenter are very well paid and have their own companies (to which the BBC is their only employment). The recent budget highlighted the number of ‘self employed’ as avoiding PAYE tax. Unfortunately the BBC are large employers of freelance and self-employed via their own private (service) companies, all of them almost exclusively are employed by the BBC to mitigate employment tax.
This was or has all been reported in one way or another in the Times, Mail or Telegraph but I am happy to be corrected if anybody has any a more accurate understanding of how the BBC is managed
for the elite ‘as a business’ that is funded almost exclusively by the taxpayer to further it aims (which are also funded by the EU as well as Qatar (was Saudi) to the tune of millions).
But the fact that the BBC is ‘always in debt’ is the parent BBC charter company. Any profits are ‘syphoned off into BBC Limited companies that the BBC own exclusively (all 18 off them) plus hundreds of other ‘joint’ limited company (various staff schemes) to mitigate tax .
Plus the little known fact that the BBC does NOT pay any CORPORATE tax on (any) of its profits was exposed by Patricia Hodge – during her last inquiry into BBC financial ethics. All whist claiming that ‘bungs’ of £1million ‘keep you focussed’ (if your a BBC DG) and Savile ‘was not employed by the BBC directly’ (and other recorded failures to numerous to mention). Many of them go unrecorded and are only highlighted under FOI requests (hence the BBC keep lots of limited companies to avoid such requests being made public knowledge). They spend a lot of money hiding how much money they have. And yet we don’t see all funding streams (as we would say in SKY or Amazon) the BBC are more opaque what happens to the money they receive.
And I still don’t know why the BBC has you-tube channel either.
YouTube comments disabled on pieces like this, natch.
Fed up with seeing hezza rolled out by albeeb to fight brexit. He has no mandate more than an ordinary citizen. He is just a £300 a day member of the best club in London – the Lords. Wish he’d stick to shooting squirrels .