4 ms·

But I think this is where it's starting to nose-dive. It used to be there were competitors but they were crass comparative junk, like ITV. Now the competitors a

But I think this is where it's starting to nose-dive. It used to be there were competitors but they were crass comparative junk, like ITV. Now the competitors are suddenly massively out BBC-ing the BBC. Huge landmark period dramas - used to be only the BBC could competently pull that off. Now Netflix does it better. Serious radio discussion - used to be only found on the BBC. Now I can get it often better from Spectator or New Statesman podcasts. They're being out-done on money and talent in, and results out, for their own game. Really serious problem.

croes 5y ago
Wait and see. Netflix was once the place for new fresh shows but it's a victim of it's shareholders value. Most shows don't survive the 1st season. If the BBC tries to copy Netflix they will lose, if they stick to their last it might work out.
- mrkstu 5y ago
  Apple seems to be trying to occupy the quality niche though.
  - chrisseaton 5y ago
    It’s the quality thing - previously peopled tried to compete with the BBC by being lower brow, now they’re attacking the high brow.
  - echelon 5y ago
    It's insane to me that Apple and Amazon are making movies. How many things are companies allowed to do? They're clearly making it harder for other players in these markets, and they're leveraging their insane capital to succeed in areas they have no experience in. It's also incredibly annoying now that there are a dozen different subscription services, each with different apps and radically different navigation UX, and many of which don't run on the same hardware. This is insane.
    - whimsicalism 5y ago
      > they're leveraging their insane capital to succeed in areas they have no experience in. This is nothing unique about Apple and Amazon, leveraging insane capital is the name of the game.
      - echelon 5y ago
        It's wildly anticompetitive. And let's not forget that this isn't strictly about movies, but the broader concept of attention. The giants are paying to keep attention on their platforms, and they're doing it in every vertical they can possibly enter. This makes it hard for other industries to compete for that same attention as they don't have the claws and meat hooks that the trillionaire famgopolies do. How does MGM compete? They can't. They sell their assets on the cheap to the rich megamonopoly.
caoilte 5y ago
Putting aside my consternation that the spectator is capable of serious discussion (it recently published an article in defence of Greek neo-nazis), the fiction that until recently only the BBC could pull off "huge landmark period dramas" is simply propaganda put about by media barons wrestling with raging hard ons for Ayn Rand in their Riviera villas (eg Brideshead Revisited - ITV 1981).

croes 5y ago

Wait and see. Netflix was once the place for new fresh shows but it's a victim of it's shareholders value. Most shows don't survive the 1st season. If the BBC tries to copy Netflix they will lose, if they stick to their last it might work out.

mrkstu 5y ago
Apple seems to be trying to occupy the quality niche though.
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  It’s the quality thing - previously peopled tried to compete with the BBC by being lower brow, now they’re attacking the high brow.
- echelon 5y ago
  It's insane to me that Apple and Amazon are making movies. How many things are companies allowed to do? They're clearly making it harder for other players in these markets, and they're leveraging their insane capital to succeed in areas they have no experience in. It's also incredibly annoying now that there are a dozen different subscription services, each with different apps and radically different navigation UX, and many of which don't run on the same hardware. This is insane.
  - whimsicalism 5y ago
    > they're leveraging their insane capital to succeed in areas they have no experience in. This is nothing unique about Apple and Amazon, leveraging insane capital is the name of the game.
    - echelon 5y ago
      It's wildly anticompetitive. And let's not forget that this isn't strictly about movies, but the broader concept of attention. The giants are paying to keep attention on their platforms, and they're doing it in every vertical they can possibly enter. This makes it hard for other industries to compete for that same attention as they don't have the claws and meat hooks that the trillionaire famgopolies do. How does MGM compete? They can't. They sell their assets on the cheap to the rich megamonopoly.

caoilte 5y ago

Putting aside my consternation that the spectator is capable of serious discussion (it recently published an article in defence of Greek neo-nazis), the fiction that until recently only the BBC could pull off "huge landmark period dramas" is simply propaganda put about by media barons wrestling with raging hard ons for Ayn Rand in their Riviera villas (eg Brideshead Revisited - ITV 1981).