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BBC considers "U-turn" on BBC Four closure - Printable Version

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RE: BBC considers "U-turn" on BBC Four closure - Neil Jones - 02-04-2023

(02-04-2023, 06:47 PM)chris Wrote:  
(02-04-2023, 06:06 PM)CATV Wrote:  If the licence fee is meant to be £207.38 but it's currently £159 then the difference is £48.38.  It's between 25 and 26 million people that pay their tv licence.  If you work on 25 and half million then the shortfall would be £1,209,500,000.  And you wonder why so many people have left and the news channel and local radio shows are being axed.  Criminal in my view.  I'm not saying put the cost on the people but there must be something they can do.  Tax breaks or something.

Commercially-funded broadcasting is produced on a fraction of the cost.

For those of us who aren't up on things like this, how does that work exactly?

Surely "broadcasting" in this sense is a relatively fixed cost that doesn't matter whether its done by the BBC, ITV Studios, Endemol or Lord Lucan? How can it be it is cheaper on the commercial side than at the BBC?

RE: BBC considers "U-turn" on BBC Four closure - DTV - 02-04-2023

(02-04-2023, 08:19 PM)Neil Jones Wrote:  
(02-04-2023, 06:47 PM)chris Wrote:  Commercially-funded broadcasting is produced on a fraction of the cost.
For those of us who aren't up on things like this, how does that work exactly?

Surely "broadcasting" in this sense is a relatively fixed cost that doesn't matter whether its done by the BBC, ITV Studios, Endemol or Lord Lucan?  How can it be it is cheaper on the commercial side than at the BBC?
I assume it refers to the programming budget, but even then ITV's programming budget is roughly 75-80% of that of comparable BBC channels, which, while lower, ITV is not as constrained as the BBC is with regards to original programming quotas. Like-for-like there's not much difference in it.

RE: BBC considers "U-turn" on BBC Four closure - Rex - 03-04-2023

(31-03-2023, 07:25 PM)Argyess Wrote:  It puzzles me as to why BBC Three was brought back as a linear channel,  given that their target audience mainly watches stuff online now.

Always came across as something of a backwards step to me.

I'm pleased BBC Four might end up being saved after all.

BBC Three's ratings haven't set the world alight, the schedule is padded out with repeats of at 1 or 2 shows in the late hours of the day. You can really tell that the lack of a big show to hook viewers on Three clearly says much about its fortunes right now. Its EPG slots at launch (particularly on Sky, especially if you live in London) were less than favourable

That said, I don't think they should close it down, could they can afford to do it a second time with backlash once again?

As for BBC Four, it's welcome news that they are considering keeping it on air. Although it really begs the question, if they are keeping BBC Four but nuking CBBC in the process, they will have the same problem of unused bandwidth that they had when Three closed in 2016

RE: BBC considers "U-turn" on BBC Four closure - Kojak - 03-04-2023

(03-04-2023, 05:41 AM)Rex Wrote:  
(31-03-2023, 07:25 PM)Argyess Wrote:  It puzzles me as to why BBC Three was brought back as a linear channel,  given that their target audience mainly watches stuff online now.

Always came across as something of a backwards step to me.

I'm pleased BBC Four might end up being saved after all.

BBC Three's ratings haven't set the world alight, the schedule is padded out with repeats of at 1 or 2 shows in the late hours of the day. You can really tell that the lack of a big show to hook viewers on Three clearly says much about its fortunes right now. Its EPG slots at launch (particularly on Sky, especially if you live in London) were less than favourable

That said, I don't think they should close it down, could they can afford to do it a second time with backlash once again?

As for BBC Four, it's welcome news that they are considering keeping it on air. Although it really begs the question, if they are keeping BBC Four but nuking CBBC in the process, they will have the same problem of unused bandwidth that they had when Three closed in 2016
If they are keeping Four, I dare say they could spin it as ‘Four gets the viewers, Three doesn’t’ and close Three that way. Or - and I suggested this earlier on - extend Four’s hours. There is no shortage of archive content, and it would be an easy PR win (‘you loved BBC Four so much we’re not only saving it, but extending its hours’). 

I do think Three will ultimately be closed (again). I suspect someone at the BBC has been very clever with how they have leaked all this to Deadline. My impression is that there are senior people at the BBC who know they made a mistake bringing back Three and planning to close Four, and leaking this info is them testing the waters for public reaction.

RE: BBC considers "U-turn" on BBC Four closure - CCFG - 03-04-2023

BARB data from February indicates that Three only gets a 0.17% average share, just 0.01% higher than CBBC's 0.16%. In contrast, Four gets a 0.74% average share. CBeebies comes out on top, with a 1.08% average share.

What I'm trying to get out is, if they are going by "Plans to stop broadcasting smaller linear channels", which is what the original press release said, then I think, in the long term, it could be Three & CBBC for the chop.

RE: BBC considers "U-turn" on BBC Four closure - DTV - 03-04-2023

(03-04-2023, 10:30 AM)CCFG Wrote:  BARB data from February indicates that Three only gets a 0.17% average share, just 0.01% higher than CBBC's 0.16%. In contrast, Four gets a 0.74% average share. CBeebies comes out on top, with a 1.08% average share.

What I'm trying to get out is, if they are going by "Plans to stop broadcasting smaller linear channels", which is what the original press release said, then I think, in the long term, it could be Three & CBBC for the chop.
Those are definitely poor figures for Three, and if that £80m content fund is correct, then BBC Three could well end up taking the title of BBC service with highest cost per user hour from CBBC. Certainly not a great position for it to be in at this time.

Personally, I think you could make a case for dropping all of Three, Four and CBBC as linear channels and using the 'spare' space from CBeebies as a BBC Extra channel for sport/live music, with a mix of archive and/or iPlayer highlights otherwise. As I said the other day, when taking into account cuts, reductions in content and changing viewer habits, it'd be better to consolidate and have two stronger main linear channels, than a handful of more fragmented channels that are mainly repeat-based. There is enough space for the content still produced by those channels to be given linear broadcasts, while gaining the savings from reduced distribution, infrastructure and support costs.

RE: BBC considers "U-turn" on BBC Four closure - Brekkie - 03-04-2023

(01-04-2023, 02:44 PM)UTVLifer Wrote:  The main attraction for the reboot BBC Three has been RuPaul's Drag Race UK and all the other 156 different variations of it
That show has kind of highlighted how there is no room to hide on linear TV.    It could pretty much be declared a hit by the BBC as an iPlayer first show (though it got a BBC1 repeat) and had enough buzz around it to seem like it was, but then on BBC3 on TV it's not actually done that great numbers.   

That said though I'm surprised they don't use reruns and the international versions more to pad out the late night schedule.   They could probably run the back catalogue of the US versions on weeknights across the year, though I'm not sure the BBC has rights to the US version.

RE: BBC considers "U-turn" on BBC Four closure - Kojak - 03-04-2023

(03-04-2023, 12:14 PM)DTV Wrote:  Personally, I think you could make a case for dropping all of Three, Four and CBBC as linear channels and using the 'spare' space from CBeebies as a BBC Extra channel for sport/live music, with a mix of archive and/or iPlayer highlights otherwise. As I said the other day, when taking into account cuts, reductions in content and changing viewer habits, it'd be better to consolidate and have two stronger main linear channels, than a handful of more fragmented channels that are mainly repeat-based. There is enough space for the content still produced by those channels to be given linear broadcasts, while gaining the savings from reduced distribution, infrastructure and support costs.
That's not a bad idea at all - though I think you could probably get away with keeping the BBC Four name. There's always been a lot of music on BBC Four, after all, and over the past few years even sport. I think it's right that what has traditionally been Three and Four content moves back to BBC Two, a channel which has really lost its identity over the past 20 years.

RE: BBC considers "U-turn" on BBC Four closure - tellyblues - 03-04-2023

(03-04-2023, 08:42 PM)Brekkie Wrote:  
(01-04-2023, 02:44 PM)UTVLifer Wrote:  The main attraction for the reboot BBC Three has been RuPaul's Drag Race UK and all the other 156 different variations of it
That show has kind of highlighted how there is no room to hide on linear TV.    It could pretty much be declared a hit by the BBC as an iPlayer first show (though it got a BBC1 repeat) and had enough buzz around it to seem like it was, but then on BBC3 on TV it's not actually done that great numbers.   

That said though I'm surprised they don't use reruns and the international versions more to pad out the late night schedule.   They could probably run the back catalogue of the US versions on weeknights across the year, though I'm not sure the BBC has rights to the US version.

Drag Race gets the hype because of its concept, much like The Traitors or The Circle, but it isn't accessible enough nor of interest to those who watch linear TV. You have to wonder why so many reality shows get commissioned for the main channels when the audience they will appeal to isn't there.

RE: BBC considers "U-turn" on BBC Four closure - Jon - 03-04-2023

(03-04-2023, 10:21 PM)tellyblues Wrote:  
(03-04-2023, 08:42 PM)Brekkie Wrote:  That show has kind of highlighted how there is no room to hide on linear TV.    It could pretty much be declared a hit by the BBC as an iPlayer first show (though it got a BBC1 repeat) and had enough buzz around it to seem like it was, but then on BBC3 on TV it's not actually done that great numbers.   

That said though I'm surprised they don't use reruns and the international versions more to pad out the late night schedule.   They could probably run the back catalogue of the US versions on weeknights across the year, though I'm not sure the BBC has rights to the US version.

Drag Race gets the hype because of its concept, much like The Traitors or The Circle, but it isn't accessible enough nor of interest to those who watch linear TV. You have to wonder why so many reality shows get commissioned for the main channels when the audience they will appeal to isn't there.
Drag Race UK has particular appeal in the LGBTQ+ scene, so it doesn’t need to do massive numbers to justify its existence if it does well for its target audience.