BBC to Cull the Cult TV Repository

malkavian writes "The BBC has announced that it's going to be ceasing to host it's Cult TV Repository. At a meager 700,000 users per month, it was decided that this was no longer a significantly useful public resource, as the information was also available elsewhere on the net. Many people believe this to be a grievous mistake on the part of the BBC, to allow the history of their own broadcasting highlights to fragment, and possibly be lost like so much of its other content."

Comments

This is strange...

[Arthur B.]

It's not like they lack bandwith ? Maybe they lack the human workforce to keep it up... If they'd open it up a little like a wiki this wouldn't be much of a problem, and bandwith cost is largely covered by the affluence to other BCC pages.

Re:This is strange...

[Anonymous Luddite]

>> The BBC don't have adverts on their site - so every page viewed costs them

That's their own fault. How can you possibly have a web page with 700,000 monthly users and not be able to pay for it? I'm not saying spam the hell out of your users with ads, but geez. Try to sell them a coffee mug or t-shirt about the programs they have already shown interest in.

Give any webmaster 700,000 monthly visits targeted to a particular niche and they'll be able to make money on it, or at least not go broke.

No two ways about it, BBC is throwing something valuable away.

this is like the black & white film.

[Saven Marek]

this is like the black & white film I think where everyone bemoaned that it was no longer available but few people who complained ever use it any more. so like it's the same with many tv shows when many people say "well that one should stay on air!!!" but they dont watch it even when it is on.

Commercial Pressure on the Beeb

[dontod]

This is about pressure on the what web content the BBC should have from other commericial operators such as News International (The Sun newspaper, Sky TV) and other Newspapers groups who feel that the BBC is giving away content, they could be earning revenue from.

Don.

Re:The BBC has to save money

[Bimo_Dude]

just cut of access off to those outside the UK

No, no, no, no, NO!

As someone who is not in the UK, I can tell you that (for me anyway) I would be happy to pay for a subscription to the BBC (both for television and web, but not BBC America since it's watered/dumbed down). I think that modifying your statement to say "Perhaps the BBC should implement a subscription model for those outside the UK and the non-lincense fee payers" would be a bit more appealing to me. I would gladly pay for quality programming from them, since most of the programming in the US is crap.

Um

[t_allardyce]

Isn't the whole point of cult TV that its not mainstream 'masses' but a smaller number of dedicated fans? And while we are at it, the internet is not a broadcast medium, unlike TV/radio where a transmitter costs a fixed amount no matter how many people tune in, a website costs less to run with fewer visitors, sure it gets to a point where the overhead outweighs the variable cost but 700,000 people? The BBC should just start a BitTorrent tracker or something similar if the costs are too high for a full video server.

Anyway the BBC is supposed to be pushing the masses up not dumbing down. A commercial network might bow to the biggest demographic but the point of a socialist/communist/whatever corporation is that it gives the masses good intelligent programming whether they like it or not, both types are needed - commercial TV is more 'fair' in its finances, non-commercial tax-funded TV is more 'fair' in its representation of all demographics. I call on the BBC to go back to educating people so they will realise how valuable a service it is and continue to make sure its funded.

They never advertised this site....

[mikael]

I didn't know about this site until it came up in this slashdot topic. Perhaps they should have linked to other sites like TV Cream which has all the theme tunes and info on British TV programming. Although, as other comments have stated, there's no point in the BBC maintaining a web site dedicated to TV programming from the USA.

Re:The BBC are acting like total Smegheads!

[Vonotar82]

Oh... Well, in that case..it looks like I'm the smeghead.

As someone who pays a licence fee

[Mr_Silver]

As someone who pays a licence fee (rather than a lot of people here on Slashdot), if the BBC is spending more of my money than it is worth on maintaining a site with very few visitors then I would prefer that they use put my money to better use.

If not, then I would be contributing to the maintenance and upkeep of a 101 sites of which are of little interest to anyone.

The BBC serves the public licence-paying viewers interests and if they are not interested in something, then it should not be wasting its money on such a project.

Without trying to sound completely negative, I hope that the BBC will be sensible enough to allow someone else to host the content and continue to maintain it.

Re:Jobcuts (new management)

[vrai]

The BBC shouldn't be competing with commercial companies - it should be providing content that commercial networks either can't or won't do. Given the narrow focus of commercial television and radio this means anything that targets a minority (be it social, economic, religous and/or ethnic). As such you could probably justify the Cult website and there is no ITV/Sky equivalent.

What the BBC should not be doing is spending money on broadcasting sports, soap operas, by-the-numbers drama, blockbuster films and yet more tedious reality TV. These are already provided by the multitude of commercial channels available. Any reduction in spending on these areas is a step in the right direction. Sadly I think the Beeb will end up doing the opposite and mainly trimming the minority programming it should be specialising on, and pumping all its cash in to more Test The Nation Moron Specials and Yet Another Working Class Soap.

Re:Jobcuts (new management)

[jacksonj04]

BBC programming is still head and shoulders above the rest, although ITV is catching up in places.

I thought that Strictly Come Dancing and Strictly Dance Fever were far superior reality TV offerings to the likes of How Clean Is Your Toilet, Big Brother, Celebrity Love Island and the rest.