The BBC and the 4 countries.

[stuart-farquhar]

Noticed on watching BBC news this evening that they did reports from London, Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast. Edinburgh being the odd capital out. No studios of any note being the reason I suppose.

[JeMeSouviens]

Noticed on watching BBC news this evening that they did reports from London, Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast. Edinburgh being the odd capital out. No studios of any note being the reason I suppose.

They do often send Sarah Smith to stand outside Holyrood but I presume she lives in Glasgow so not travelling just now?

I don't really get the current news fad for having reporters outside the studio even when they're reporting on something where it makes sod all difference where they are. Like Huw Edwards having to stand in Downing St or the poor NI reporter who kept having to stand on a roadside at the Irish border to tell us about Brexit.

[McSwanky]

I've stopped watching the BBC news. Never actually thought I'd say this, as I had dismissed it as hysteria back in the Indyref/Brexit days, but it's nothing more than a propaganda mouthpiece for the party line these days.

Channel 4 News is light years ahead in terms of analysis and balance.

[lapsedhibee]

I've stopped watching the BBC news. Never actually thought I'd say this, as I had dismissed it as hysteria back in the Indyref/Brexit days, but it's nothing more than a propaganda mouthpiece for the party line these days.


The fact that Kuenssberg is still in a job there at all, never mind as editor, says it all.

[JeMeSouviens]

I've stopped watching the BBC news. Never actually thought I'd say this, as I had dismissed it as hysteria back in the Indyref/Brexit days, but it's nothing more than a propaganda mouthpiece for the party line these days.

Channel 4 News is light years ahead in terms of analysis and balance.

Yes, C4 much better. Ironically, given its origins, Sky is also much better. There are still a few bits of decent Beeb output like newsnight and some decent journalists like Allan Little but the News at Ten aka Laura's Bojo fan club is cringeable to say the least.

[Pretty Boy]

The BBC is much more than their news division and still produce some very good content.

However their flagship news output is watered down drivel that often blurs the line between news and light entertainment. In a setting such as Breakfast that makes sense as that is a show that attempts to cover all bases. When that spreads to their main news bulletins and news website it become a different matter. I still find myself drawn to BBC news out of habit. At 6pm you watch 'the news' but when contrasted with Channel 4s offering the faults are obvious.

The annoying thing is there is evidence the BBC can do better. On a good night Newsnight is still worth watching, Victoria Derbyshire had some great investigative reporting, the Long Reads/Full Story section on the website is very good, Hard Talk is worth watching and Dateline London can be decent with the right guests. That's before we get to the radio content which has a few gems.

The problem with the mains news broadcasts is they are very deliberately not challenging. Such is the depaeration not to show bias their wishy washy questioning and dumbed down content leaves them wide open to that very accusation.

[lord bunberry]

The bbc has a studio in holyrood road.

[Tomsk]

The bbc has a studio in holyrood road.

Just big enough for doing head and shoulder shot interviews.

It's a scandal that BBC Glasgow has more studio provision in Dumbarton than it has in Scotland's capital.

[JimBHibees]

I've stopped watching the BBC news. Never actually thought I'd say this, as I had dismissed it as hysteria back in the Indyref/Brexit days, but it's nothing more than a propaganda mouthpiece for the party line these days.

Channel 4 News is light years ahead in terms of analysis and balance.

Thats what i tend to watch light years ahead in terms of topics and features covered. Presenters mostly excellent too.

[heretoday]

BBC radio is a better bet for learning facts and hearing reporters and analysts who are prepared to criticise the UK government and their increasingly wobbly handling of the crisis.
The TV newscasters are far too circumspect.

[Colr]

Just big enough for doing head and shoulder shot interviews.

It's a scandal that BBC Glasgow has more studio provision in Dumbarton than it has in Scotland's capital.

They can only travel a limited distance from the Ubiquitous Chip.

A bridge had to be built to connect the BBC studios in Govan with it.

[Pretty Boy]

BBC4 set to be axed by the end of the year.

It was a great channel for a long time and still produces the odd gem. Some of the music shows were worth the license fee alone. If it achieved nothing else it gave us The Thick of It.

[lapsedhibee]

BBC4 set to be axed by the end of the year.

It was a great channel for a long time and still produces the odd gem. Some of the music shows were worth the license fee alone. If it achieved nothing else it gave us The Thick of It.

FFS. Rather they did away with BBC1.

[Hibby Bairn]

BBC4 set to be axed by the end of the year.

It was a great channel for a long time and still produces the odd gem. Some of the music shows were worth the license fee alone. If it achieved nothing else it gave us The Thick of It.

My favourite channel. Some really interesting programmes.

[Mibbes Aye]

BBC4 set to be axed by the end of the year.

It was a great channel for a long time and still produces the odd gem. Some of the music shows were worth the license fee alone. If it achieved nothing else it gave us The Thick of It.

I read stuff about that. It feels like a continuation of a general dumbing-down. Sky Arts used to run two channels, one of which broadcast opera, ballet, classical concerts, documentaries about fine arts and so on.

They scrapped that channel. Today, the remaining channel has a couple of reality shows, and supposed documentaries about Jack Palance, George C Scott, then Marvin Gaye, George Benson and how Sam Cooke died. Some of them might be interesting, I admit that, but it isn't exactly making the arts accesible to people.

As for The Thick Of It, BBC 4 should be nationalised and kept forever as a national treasure for initially screening it.

[CropleyWasGod]

FFS. Rather they did away with BBC1.


My favourite channel. Some really interesting programmes.

Snap and snap.

Blame all those on here who celebrate not paying the licence fee.:stirrer:

[Renfrew_Hibby]

Never watch BBC now, just a party mouthpiece as said above.

It's Sky and C4 for me. Even ITN at 10pm is OK for analysis and is more probing than its 10pm counterpart over on the Beeb.

[Smartie]

I rarely watch anything on TV "as live" but I watch as much on I-player as I have ever done.

The BBC still does what it does best very well, and it will be weaker for losing BBC4.

[pollution]

The BBC said it is looking at many options to save money but they have not yet come to any conclusions.

BBC 4 is one of the better channels imo.

[CropleyWasGod]

The BBC said it is looking at many options to save money but they have not yet come to any conclusions.

BBC 4 is one of the better channels imo.

They may have leaked the suggestion about closing BBC4, to see what the reaction would be.

They did that with 6 Music a few years back. Suggested it was being closed, there was a backlash, and they relented.

[Glory Lurker]

Snap and snap.

Blame all those on here who celebrate not paying the licence fee.:stirrer:

I pay the licence fee, before I say anything else.

I know you are stirring, but it's obviously down the BBC focusing on ratings. Ratings justify the fee, but to get the ratings they focus on pap that you could find anywhere else, which kind of begs the question "what makes them so special that we have to pay for them whether we watch them or not"?

[CropleyWasGod]

I pay the licence fee, before I say anything else.

I know you are stirring, but it's obviously down the BBC focusing on ratings. Ratings justify the fee, but to get the ratings they focus on pap that you could find anywhere else, which kind of begs the question "what makes them so special that we have to pay for them whether we watch them or not"?

It's a fair question.

I tend to think that the pap is necessary to get the ratings, as you say. But that then means the corporation can afford to run the niche programming that they do.... like 4, Alba, the World Service, just to name a few....that no-one else in the world does.

And, as I said on another thread, I don't mind paying just to avoid the adverts. :greengrin

[Glory Lurker]

It's a fair question.

I tend to think that the pap is necessary to get the ratings, as you say. But that then means the corporation can afford to run the niche programming that they do.... like 4, Alba, the World Service, just to name a few....that no-one else in the world does.

And, as I said on another thread, I don't mind paying just to avoid the adverts. :greengrin

I get that, and enjoy some of that stuff too, but I would rather they had a "BBC Guid Stuff" that you could choose to pay for, rather than have to pay for a universe of rubbish I never go near.

It also annoys me that the BBC news website is tilted towards America. Currency conversions are stated in dollars as well as (and sometimes before) sterling and temperatures are converted to that unacceptable imperial scale. The live feed on coronavirus has now and again referred to UK stuff in a manner that is obviously designed for a non-UK reader (I can't remember a specific example, but there'll be a geological testament in my blood pressure somewhere!). I get that BBC sells stuff all over the place, and particularly America, but they buy through choice and get what they pay for. Why we're chucking in freebies at licence fee payers' expense is beyond me.

And don't start me on the UK emigrants who watch using a VPN while muggins here pays for it!

[danhibees1875]

I'd rather they just done away with the license and had adverts.

I like adverts (or the space for them anyway), it provides a break in the programme to chat about what's going on (I don't like people talking through things) or get a drink/ go to the toilet.

FWIW, I have little compalaint about the content either. I can't say I notice it being any better or worse than any other channel.

[CropleyWasGod]

I'd rather they just done away with the license and had adverts.

I like adverts (or the space for them anyway), it provides a break in the programme to chat about what's going on (I don't like people talking through things) or get a drink/ go to the toilet.

FWIW, I have little compalaint about the content either. I can't say I notice it being any better or worse than any other channel.

You don't see a difference between BBC Radio and commercial radio?

[danhibees1875]

You don't see a difference between BBC Radio and commercial radio?

I maybe should have clarified that the comment only related to the services I consume which in the case of BBC is TV, and online news (but I don't have much of a comparison to them there).

I don't listen to much radio, when I do it's Capital. Was your comment coming from a position of BBC being better or worse?

[CropleyWasGod]

I maybe should have clarified that the comment only related to the services I consume which in the case of BBC is TV, and online news (but I don't have much of a comparison to them there).

I don't listen to much radio, when I do it's Capital. Was your comment coming from a position of BBC being better or worse?

It was actually more of a comment on the distinct differences between the 2, trying to be even-handed 😁

That said, and it's an opinion of course, the sheer breadth of BBC radio vastly outguns what the commercial sector, as a whole, has.