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What is the point of a State owned broadcaster if it operates like a private equity firm? How is this in the public interest? I'm surprised this happened so qui

What is the point of a State owned broadcaster if it operates like a private equity firm? How is this in the public interest? I'm surprised this happened so quickly.

fakedang 3y ago
At least a private equity firm keeps to begging and courting HNW folks. The BBC on the other hand sends threatening letters forcing you to cough up for a TV license, even if you don't use your TV for anything except videogames (in spite of what the gummint says in its rulebook).
nxobject 3y ago
Because it's been consistently underfunded for years – tentpole current affairs/factual programmes like Newsnight have had shrinking resources for years, and commercially successful franchises like Dr. Who are often majority-funded by other broadcasters (Disney+ in this case.) [1] [1] https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/mar/27/russell-t-davies-says-end-of-bbc-is-undoubtedly-on-its-way https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/mar/27/russell...
rjmunro 3y ago
It's in the public interest because it saves money which can be used on other things.
- SuperNinKenDo 3y ago
  That can be said of anything. At some point you have to actually spend money to make things better, else nothing you do is in the public interest.
M2Ys4U 3y ago
>I'm surprised this happened so quickly. That's because of the conservative government, imposing ideological cuts on the BBC. The BBC's budget was cut by 30% between 2010 and 2020 because of freezes to the license fee, withdrawing funding for the World Service and the liability for free licences for over 75s being shifted from the government on to the corporation.
constantcrying 3y ago
>What is the point of a State owned broadcaster if it operates like a private equity firm? Who knows? In my country most of the money given to public broadcasters is spent making absurd low quality entertainment and documentaries which YouTubers do easily better while having a millionth of the budget. For some reason they feel the need to compete with the rest of the industry, when the sole reason they exist is such that they don't have to do that.

What is the point of a State owned broadcaster if it operates like a private equity firm? How is this in the public interest? I'm surprised this happened so quickly.

fakedang 3y ago

At least a private equity firm keeps to begging and courting HNW folks. The BBC on the other hand sends threatening letters forcing you to cough up for a TV license, even if you don't use your TV for anything except videogames (in spite of what the gummint says in its rulebook).

nxobject 3y ago

Because it's been consistently underfunded for years – tentpole current affairs/factual programmes like Newsnight have had shrinking resources for years, and commercially successful franchises like Dr. Who are often majority-funded by other broadcasters (Disney+ in this case.) [1] [1] https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/mar/27/russell-t-davies-says-end-of-bbc-is-undoubtedly-on-its-way https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/mar/27/russell...

rjmunro 3y ago

It's in the public interest because it saves money which can be used on other things.

SuperNinKenDo 3y ago
That can be said of anything. At some point you have to actually spend money to make things better, else nothing you do is in the public interest.

M2Ys4U 3y ago

>I'm surprised this happened so quickly. That's because of the conservative government, imposing ideological cuts on the BBC. The BBC's budget was cut by 30% between 2010 and 2020 because of freezes to the license fee, withdrawing funding for the World Service and the liability for free licences for over 75s being shifted from the government on to the corporation.

constantcrying 3y ago

>What is the point of a State owned broadcaster if it operates like a private equity firm? Who knows? In my country most of the money given to public broadcasters is spent making absurd low quality entertainment and documentaries which YouTubers do easily better while having a millionth of the budget. For some reason they feel the need to compete with the rest of the industry, when the sole reason they exist is such that they don't have to do that.