Government Could Ban BBC From Showing Top Shows at Peak Times (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The BBC is on a collision course with the government over reported efforts to bar it from showing popular shows at peak viewing times. The culture secretary, John Whittingdale, is widely expected to ban the broadcaster from going head-to-head with commercial rivals as part of the BBC charter review. He is due to publish a white paper within weeks that will set out a tougher regime as part of a new royal charter to safeguard the service for another 11 years. ITV has complained about licence fee money being used to wage a ratings battle with it and other channels funded by advertising. A source at the BBC said the public would be deeply concerned if it were forced to move programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Who and Sherlock from prime time weekend slots.In some unrelated news, Clarkson, Hammond, and May are still figuring out the name for their new show.

Comments

Typical conservative machinations

[barc0001]

Kill the Beeb's ratings and then they'll claim it can't compete and should be shut down or sold off to one of their cronies for pennies.

Re:Typical conservative machinations

[Anonymous Coward]

Part of the ongoing plan to kill the BBC.

Phase 1: Don't allow them to increase the licence fee in line with inflation.
Phase 2: Make them pay for the World Service, which is of no benefit to licencees.
Phase 3: Take away the revenue from households that have someone over 70 years of age.
Phase 4: Stop them from showing popular shows at times when people are likey to want to watch them.
Phase 5: Shut it down because no-one is watching it any more.
Phase 6: Everyone pays Rupert Mudoch's ransom for the only good TV left.

Re:Typical conservative machinations

[Blue Stone]

Yep, that's their modus operandi alright. They want everything in the hands of their party donors and to rule the UK (or what remains of it) as their personal fiefdom.

What gets me is how supine the BBC is. Surely they know the person beating them about the head and body daily is going to kill them as soon as they think they can get away with it? Yet they bow and scrape, acquiesce, and attack the Labour party following Lynton Crosby's agenda to the letter.

George Osborne, the chancellor, apparently wants to take a slice of the Beeb's license fee to prop up the newspaper industry. That'd be the champion of the free market, then, attacking the Beeb which operates on a public service remit by cutting into its revenues and using a bit of corporate socialism to prop up a newspaper industry whose loyalty is to its rich, tax-dodging proprietors and which has little or no interest to fair or balanced reportage (but generally loves the Tories).

Don't even get me started on the NHS. The Conservative party wants all of the post-war (II) settlement gone to be replaced with rampant inequality.

The Conservatine party: taking the Great out of Great Britain and selling it off for pennies on the dollar.

Re:Typical conservative machinations

[andymadigan]

How's this: Get the BBC to start broadcasting over the internet in the U.S., and *I'll* pay your licence fee for you.

In fact, if iPlayer + Live TV was available for a monthly fee anywhere in the world, I'll bet BBC would be so flush with cash they could abolish the domestic fee.

Re:Speaking as an American

[itsdapead]

This is the kind of BS you have to worry about when you have government doing things it shouldn't be doing, like running a national TV network

Yes, I envy the USA and the wonderful, unbiassed, philanthropic networks run by massive multinational corporations - and the great thing is, freedom of choice: you can choose to watch the network run by the massive multinational corporation who's entrenched interests best represents your interests. Plus, of course, the US networks are famous for never censoring or regulating content.

Oh, yes, there's public broadcasting in the US. I remember watching a show on one such channel once when visiting the US: it was the original British version of House of Cards (not the Netflix US remake) in which the anti-hero F.U. takes on (and outwits) the King who Didn't Resemble Charles At All... the US channel actually prefaced it with a little lecture about the evils of monarchy* just in case any USA viewers started rooting for the King (because although F.U. was an evil, corrupt murdering bastard, he had been democratically elected after democratically murdering/smearing/blackmailing his opponents). Not sure which sponsor had insisted on that little rider. (NB: the UK monarch doesn't actually get to run the country - I'm still not a fan, but we need the tourism and the alternative would probably be to outsource the whole bunch to Disney who'd be far more likely to interfere with running the country)

Anyway, at least PBS doesn't run those adverts telling you how wonderful it is that you get to watch adverts because they protect your right to choose products made by the companies that can afford the most adverts (seriously - Philip K Dick would be proud. This was some years ago, are they still running?)

NB: The government doesn't run the BBC, but every 10 years or so they get the chance to re-write the charter under which it operates. That's what's happening at the moment - and the current government would quite like to shut it down to keep their friends in big media companies happy. You can tell the government doesn't run the BBC because if they did they'd have already shut it down.

* Citation needed, I know, but it was a while ago and the bruise where my jaw hit the floor has long gone. It was certainly a "did that just happen?" moment.