11 ms·

Off topic, but BBC blocks me because I use iPhone’s Adblock. BBC is government funded with a mission to inform the British people. Why would they require ad vi

Off topic, but BBC blocks me because I use iPhone’s Adblock. BBC is government funded with a mission to inform the British people. Why would they require ad viewing and default to not showing news without ads? Seems against their mission. For profit news I understand as the whole “maximize shareholder equity” thing, but when government news sources use these anti-consumer tactics it’s depressing to me.

CaptainSwing 6y ago
Underfunding and neoliberal management. There's a fair chance the government is hollowing it out to undermine public perception of the institution so they cang et away with doing away with it completely.
mywacaday 6y ago
BBC news used to be so good for a long time but over the last few years it seems to be gravitating more towards advertising and click bait.
agd 6y ago
BBC is free to UK viewers but ad-supported for international viewers. This seems fair to me as UK citizens are the ones funding it.
- marshmallow_12 6y ago
  exactly! we don't want just anyone reading OUR news for free;) (I'm a bit horrible that i'm happy because someone else is having a worse internet experience then me. I'll try and work on myself.)
- statstutor 6y ago
  I have occasionally sent BBC articles to my friends in the UK, only to find the article is blocked in the UK. I guess it's shockingly difficult to identify advertorials.
- prepend 6y ago
  The marginal cost of UK vs international viewers is less than the ad revenue collected, I expect. Since the ads are the same as CNN or other for profit news agencies it also seems odd that a non-profit, government (in the English language sense, not the UK part of government sense) would have more stringent ad controls than for profit. Making a government news source profit seeking is a pretty bad plan, I think.
  - throwaway3699 6y ago
    BBC Worldwide has always been profit seeking (because it subsidizes the UK taxpayer so the license fee can be lower). If you're not going to see the Ads, then the website also has a right to deny you access.
mrighele 6y ago
I use NoScript, and the page loaded fine: if you don't load any JS there is no code to detect an ad blocker :-). (This doesn't always work of course, but it does for many websites). Oh, and the website loaded in ~500ms with a 50kb of data downloaded. The "full version" loaded > 5MB of data in 10+ seconds.
- stjohnswarts 6y ago
  Sure but lots of pages won't load without javascript so it's double edged. If the javascript won't load it can't download the page via js only mechanisms.
pmontra 6y ago
uBlock Origin with Firefox on Android. The site loaded fine.
M2Ys4U 6y ago
The BBC is not a government news source. It's not even funded by the UK government.[0] It is - by law[1] - required to be completely editorially independent. The BBC is primarily funded by the TV Licence. The licence is levvied on anyone who watches live TV (any live TV) or uses BBC's SVoD service, BBC iPlayer. The BBC does operate a commercial subsidiary (BBC Studios), and the main BBC does have other revenue sources like patents owned by BBC R&D and, as you have noted, advertising on bbc.com for people who are outside of the UK. [0] Well... there are some grants given to the BBC to fund its activities internationally, but those are quite limited in scope and size. [1] https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/charter https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/charter
- londons_explore 6y ago
  > required to be completely editorially independent. Although historically it seems very rare that the BBC view on any international politics differs from that of the UK government. Hopefully that's because both cater to the views of the British public, but it also seems possible that there is some kind of informal backchannel going on...
  - hardlianotion 6y ago
    > Although historically it seems very rare that the BBC view on any international politics differs from that of the UK government. I know a lot of Britishers that would dispute this version of affairs. To my mind the typical BBC point of view is mildly left-of-centre, well-to-do and urban.
    - marshmallow_12 6y ago
      >To my mind the typical BBC point of view is mildly left-of-centre, well-to-do and urban. sounds accurate.
    - statstutor 6y ago
      > the typical BBC point of view is mildly left-of-centre Many people would claim that the BBC is left-of-centre, but if you look at their most prominent/best paid journalists, that is near-objectively not the case. Andrew Neil was been one of the highest paid BBC journalists 2003-2020, having previously worked for Rupert Murdoch, and has gone on to be Chair [correction: Chairman] of "GB News". GB News hosts the most right-wing voices in British political discourse, and been compared to Fox News in this respect. I might concede that the BBC is left-of-centre compared to the average British news media, but given that British news media is exclusively owned by conservative billionaires, I'm not convinced this is a great anchor point.
patrickmcnamara 6y ago
What is iPhone's Adblock? Is there some default iOS ad-blocker that I don't know about?
- stjohnswarts 6y ago
  Probably talking about the anti-tracking stuff built into safari. It's not exactly an adblocker but if they're tracking you and can't (a typical but not exclusive adver tactic) then it could certainly be dropping their javascript/cookies so it's functionally blocking their ads. Same goes for Firefox which bills itself as antitracking rather than anti-ads

CaptainSwing 6y ago

Underfunding and neoliberal management. There's a fair chance the government is hollowing it out to undermine public perception of the institution so they cang et away with doing away with it completely.

mywacaday 6y ago

BBC news used to be so good for a long time but over the last few years it seems to be gravitating more towards advertising and click bait.

agd 6y ago

BBC is free to UK viewers but ad-supported for international viewers. This seems fair to me as UK citizens are the ones funding it.

marshmallow_12 6y ago
exactly! we don't want just anyone reading OUR news for free;) (I'm a bit horrible that i'm happy because someone else is having a worse internet experience then me. I'll try and work on myself.)
statstutor 6y ago
I have occasionally sent BBC articles to my friends in the UK, only to find the article is blocked in the UK. I guess it's shockingly difficult to identify advertorials.
prepend 6y ago
The marginal cost of UK vs international viewers is less than the ad revenue collected, I expect. Since the ads are the same as CNN or other for profit news agencies it also seems odd that a non-profit, government (in the English language sense, not the UK part of government sense) would have more stringent ad controls than for profit. Making a government news source profit seeking is a pretty bad plan, I think.
- throwaway3699 6y ago
  BBC Worldwide has always been profit seeking (because it subsidizes the UK taxpayer so the license fee can be lower). If you're not going to see the Ads, then the website also has a right to deny you access.

mrighele 6y ago

I use NoScript, and the page loaded fine: if you don't load any JS there is no code to detect an ad blocker :-). (This doesn't always work of course, but it does for many websites). Oh, and the website loaded in ~500ms with a 50kb of data downloaded. The "full version" loaded > 5MB of data in 10+ seconds.

stjohnswarts 6y ago
Sure but lots of pages won't load without javascript so it's double edged. If the javascript won't load it can't download the page via js only mechanisms.

pmontra 6y ago

uBlock Origin with Firefox on Android. The site loaded fine.

M2Ys4U 6y ago

The BBC is not a government news source. It's not even funded by the UK government.[0] It is - by law[1] - required to be completely editorially independent. The BBC is primarily funded by the TV Licence. The licence is levvied on anyone who watches live TV (any live TV) or uses BBC's SVoD service, BBC iPlayer. The BBC does operate a commercial subsidiary (BBC Studios), and the main BBC does have other revenue sources like patents owned by BBC R&D and, as you have noted, advertising on bbc.com for people who are outside of the UK. [0] Well... there are some grants given to the BBC to fund its activities internationally, but those are quite limited in scope and size. [1] https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/charter https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/charter

londons_explore 6y ago
> required to be completely editorially independent. Although historically it seems very rare that the BBC view on any international politics differs from that of the UK government. Hopefully that's because both cater to the views of the British public, but it also seems possible that there is some kind of informal backchannel going on...
- hardlianotion 6y ago
  > Although historically it seems very rare that the BBC view on any international politics differs from that of the UK government. I know a lot of Britishers that would dispute this version of affairs. To my mind the typical BBC point of view is mildly left-of-centre, well-to-do and urban.
  - marshmallow_12 6y ago
    >To my mind the typical BBC point of view is mildly left-of-centre, well-to-do and urban. sounds accurate.
  - statstutor 6y ago
    > the typical BBC point of view is mildly left-of-centre Many people would claim that the BBC is left-of-centre, but if you look at their most prominent/best paid journalists, that is near-objectively not the case. Andrew Neil was been one of the highest paid BBC journalists 2003-2020, having previously worked for Rupert Murdoch, and has gone on to be Chair [correction: Chairman] of "GB News". GB News hosts the most right-wing voices in British political discourse, and been compared to Fox News in this respect. I might concede that the BBC is left-of-centre compared to the average British news media, but given that British news media is exclusively owned by conservative billionaires, I'm not convinced this is a great anchor point.

patrickmcnamara 6y ago

What is iPhone's Adblock? Is there some default iOS ad-blocker that I don't know about?

stjohnswarts 6y ago
Probably talking about the anti-tracking stuff built into safari. It's not exactly an adblocker but if they're tracking you and can't (a typical but not exclusive adver tactic) then it could certainly be dropping their javascript/cookies so it's functionally blocking their ads. Same goes for Firefox which bills itself as antitracking rather than anti-ads