The BBC can make similar shows, in a similar style, on a much smaller budget
DEATH SPIRAL FINANCING TV
The other is costs-a lot of the cost of US big budget TV is case/crew, US shows famously overpay their stars by international standards, and that is dragging pay up in competing global sectors but. The idea that YA/teens/40+geeky adults might want to watch genre stuff aimed at them is culturally beyond them (yes, I am still bitter they cancelled The Fades for spurious reasons) The BBC still, despite decades of evidence to the contrary, thinks of that as kids stuff, and therefore we get Doctor Who and occasional attempts to replicate a "family" show There are two points regarding the BBC competing with streaming that are something that could be solved easily, because it's to do with the mindset within the Beebīecause even on a much lower budget, they're not even trying-most of the bigger, succesful streaming shows, especially Disney, are genre based, superhero, SF, fantasy, supernatural. So subscribe now to get it in your inbox next Wednesday, and follow me on Twitter because my tweets are awesome. To find out, you’ll have to tune in next week, when I’ll be outlining my proposals on what the BBC of the future should look like, how it should work, and how it should be funded. And so on.īut I think the BBC’s future boils down to a fairly simple question: Is the corporation willing to continue on the path of least resistance and risk the death spiral, or is it time for a more radical approach to public service broadcasting? It’s still useful to have an institution we can trust to convey accurate and truthful information that isn’t compromised by commercial considerations. It’s still useful to have a broadcaster committed to nurturing talent and serving audiences the private sector will not. It’s still useful to have a supply of children’s programming that isn’t rampantly commercial. It is still a useful thing for society to have impartial journalists slogging through boring meetings to report on important things that commercial outlets have no interest in covering. Instead, they’ll be reminiscing about watching a Twitch streaming millionaire child screaming racial slurs as he rail-guns his opponents on Fortnite.ġ6, I think there is a future for the BBC - or at least, the bundle of functions that the BBC currently performs. When the younger generation become adults who vote and have opinions on the financing models of public service broadcasters, they won’t be nostalgic for those lovely balloon idents, Anthea Turner making Tracy Island or PJ’s unfortunate paintball accident. In other words, my generation - late 80s millennials - was probably the last one to have any sort of affection for the BBC drummed into it at an early age. “When asked if they could pick only one platform to watch, 45% of 5-15s chose YouTube – a higher proportion than those who chose on-demand, such as Netflix (32%), or TV channels such as BBC and ITV (17%).” According to Ofcom’s 2019 kids viewing habits report : Look at what kids are - or rather, aren’t - watching. And scarily, I think there are ominous signs that this is already starting to happen. The BBC’s falling mindshare also makes the claims to universality shakier. Not only do we have more to watch, but the new platforms themselves are a challenge to the previously unrivalled position of the BBC as the dominant player in British culture.ġ3, which means smaller budgets for the BBC, which means less money to spend on content, and on the death spiral goes.īut this isn’t just about money. We obviously live in an era dominated by international streaming platforms. The BBC itself makes this argument and it was in the first sentence of a recent submission to the DCMS committee.īut the reality in 2021 is that this universality cannot hold - and without universality, the entire rationale for the BBC as it currently exists is undermined. Because there’s something for everyone, no one can complain about paying for it. The BBC’s legitimacy is predicated on it being a universal service. The BBC also makes things like Strictly and Doctor Who, which you do like. And anyway, it doesn’t matter if you find all of that important stuff boring. 6, or you don’t tune in to hear what the fishing conditions are like in the North Sea, it’s good that at least someone, somewhere is being paid to care about these things.
0 kommentar(er)
