tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153845628469776909.post1904860491064913552..comments2024-03-24T09:13:28.758+00:00Comments on The Plashing Vole: Bye Bye BeebThe Plashing Volehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13021407602157515927noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153845628469776909.post-67911658879427953922015-07-20T14:29:39.537+01:002015-07-20T14:29:39.537+01:00Metatone: I don't know what to make of your po...Metatone: I don't know what to make of your post, as you seem to accept all the points I made.<br /><br />OK, you prefer CBBC to CITV. That's your opinion, but it doesn't mean to say that, as the original post claimed, "children’s TV has largely disappeared from the commercial airwaves". It hasn't. Indeed, apart from CITV, there are seventeen other commercial children's channels available in the UK. <br /><br />You also say that Big Brother was trialled on a Dutch Channel that "had been a public channel up until a year previously...it was the public broadcasting ethic that allowed the gamble". Well, no. The Dutch Channel Veronica which launched the show went private in 1995; Big Brother was first broadcast in 1999. I make that four years, not one. And if you think that Veronica's motives in commissioning the programme derived from a public service ethos, I give up.<br /><br />As for Madmen, I'm intrigued that you know how much Sky paid. Most industry commentators seem to think that Madmen formed part of an output deal between Sky and HBO. I look forward to your evidence.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153845628469776909.post-48554266248944380922015-07-18T10:34:04.255+01:002015-07-18T10:34:04.255+01:00Anonymous clearly hasn't sat down with the kid...Anonymous clearly hasn't sat down with the kids and watched CITV anytime recently. The quality difference (not to mention the volume of imported dross) is clear. The shuffle where we stopped acknowledging that quality children's TV is possibly one of the most important public service issues is a sign of how our priorities have been broken.<br /><br />Big Brother was trialled elsewhere - on a channel in the Netherlands that had been a public channel up until a year previously. It was the public broadcasting ethic that allowed the gamble. (And I worked on the original Dutch version...)<br /><br />WWTBAM by contrast clearly could only come out of commercial television. It's not the business of the BBC to be operating a high cash payment show, subsidised by expensive phone line competitions etc. It's ITV at it's best (and worst) - yet it's rather odd to suggest that the BBC should have be trialling it. <br /><br />As for your rewriting of the MadMen story - go look up how much Sky paid. It was a conscious strategy (replicating the sports one) to subsidise a fledgling channel (Sky Atlantic) with a blockbuster acquisition - and at around 1/4 million £ per episode, it was not something the BBC could match.Metatonenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153845628469776909.post-72025490294093290552015-07-17T18:07:07.068+01:002015-07-17T18:07:07.068+01:00Oh, and while I remember, you mention The Voice in...Oh, and while I remember, you mention The Voice in connection with your remark that "most TV formats are trialled on licence-funded channels". Well yes, The Voice was "trialled" by the BBC but only following a bidding war with ITV, and for a two year license on the format the BBC ended up paying...well look it up for yourself.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153845628469776909.post-37625195724015196262015-07-17T17:44:22.145+01:002015-07-17T17:44:22.145+01:00As a supporter of the BBC, I'm genuinely sorry...As a supporter of the BBC, I'm genuinely sorry to have to point out that most of this post is ill-informed nonsense. Some random examples:<br /><br />"Classic FM has destroyed classical music by its strict policy of only ever playing snippets of music that has featured on adverts." That's simply untrue - why do you say so?<br /><br />"Children’s TV has largely disappeared from the commercial airwaves." Completely untrue. Check out CITV.<br /><br />"Most TV formats are trialled on licence-funded channels." Rubbish. What about, say, the triumphantly successful Big Brother, or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Unlike, say, University Challenge, which is an American commercial format the BBC has licensed.<br /><br />"Take Mad Men...only BBC2 took a chance on it in the UK". Really? And your evidence that no other UK channel was interested would be - what?<br /><br />"Once (Madmen) was a critical hit, Sky swooped in to outbid the BBC for later series". Surely you mean that when Madmen was a ratings disaster on BBC Four, the likelihood was that the BBC declined to renew the series and it was sold off cheap to Sky?<br /><br />"Essentially, the new government wants a BBC which panders solely to the tastes of rich, white, conservative, southern people, especially men." You mean it doesn't already? <br /><br />And so on.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com