Theres alot of Pidgin talk.

[Elsa TLC]

South Africa anti-immigration protests on June 30: Key places wia South Africa anti-immigration protests go happun for June 30 and wetin authorities dey do - BBC News Pidgin https://share.google/MJdTnVbIOuTJj7FA9

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Honestly, I'd describe that language as a racist pee-take, it's just bad English. Is this supposed to be a language? Why are the BBC providing news to a foreign country anyway?

If you read it out it sounds like you're walking around a dodgy UK housing estate.

The = Di
They = Dey
Gather = Gada

 

[opps]

The BBC World Service currently broadcasts in 43(?) languages. One of those is English. It also includes Welsh and Gaelic.

The BBC world service is part of the soft power of the UK. By promoting trust, it increases the likelihood of the UK getting contracts abroad. Granted, I have no idea about the cost/benefit.

Do you take umbrage with the Beeb broadcasting in any other languages?

As an aside, I am aware that Radio 4 has just stopped broadcasting on long wave. I guess that the world service still uses it- I guess it would be too expensive to do broadcast other wise.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

It's all old days stuff, the empire's gone. Soft power is nonsense. We don't need a state propaganda department, that's the stuff of commie regimes.

They need to make everyone producing this garbage redundant and get themselves efficient in preparation for the privatisation/closure that will be happening shortly after 2029.

 

[opps]

It's all old days stuff, the empire's gone. Soft power is nonsense. We don't need a state propaganda department, that's the stuff of commie regimes.

They need to make everyone producing this garbage redundant and get themselves efficient in preparation for the privatisation/closure that will be happening shortly after 2029.

Not sure I agree.

The commie comment? In my lifetime, labour, the liberal and conservative governments have each accused the BBC of political bias.

Apropos privatisation- do you really think that a news channel beholden to advertisers will be more honest?

 

[Brigadier]

It's all old days stuff, the empire's gone. Soft power is nonsense. We don't need a state propaganda department, that's the stuff of commie regimes.

They need to make everyone producing this garbage redundant and get themselves efficient in preparation for the privatisation/closure that will be happening shortly after 2029.

If you don't believe in "soft power", why do you bother posting on here?

 

[morqthana]

We don't need a state propaganda department

Good job we don't have one, then, isn't it.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

The commie comment? In my lifetime, labour, the liberal and conservative governments have each accused the BBC of political bias.

Apropos privatisation- do you really think that a news channel beholden to advertisers will be more honest?

Do you know what communism is? It's where the government owns industry. E.g. a state-run broadcaster. Nothing to do with left-right bias

Everyone is "beholden" to whoever pays their bills or decides their fate - in the BBC's case, the government.

In these days it's absolutely simple for consumers to choose whether to receive ads or not. In my case I choose to pay YouTube £13 a month to be ad-free. I think it's good value, I have free choice and I don't receive threatening, misleading, bullying letters or get threats of "officers" turning up on my doorstep if I don't subscribe.

The BBC could operate in exactly the same way. The reason they don't want to and lobby against change is that they know that in reality their bureaucratic regime full of massively overpaid leeches, making garbage that the vast majority don't want to watch, wouldn't last a year if people got to choose whether to pay or not.

The whole concept of a state broadcaster and TV licence should have died about 50 years ago. There's no excuse for it at all these days.

 

[ellal]

Do you know what communism is? It's where the government owns industry.

Could you tell us what 'industry' the UK government 'owns'?

Given that all European countries (bar Belarus and Russia) have some form of democracy, and most have state owned utilities and or subsidised state owned 'industries', I guess you would then label most of Europe as communist?

 

[opps]

Do you know what communism is? It's where the government owns industry. E.g. a state-run broadcaster. Nothing to do with left-right bias

Everyone is "beholden" to whoever pays their bills or decides their fate - in the BBC's case, the government.

In these days it's absolutely simple for consumers to choose whether to receive ads or not. In my case I choose to pay YouTube £13 a month to be ad-free. I think it's good value, I have free choice and I don't receive threatening, misleading, bullying letters or get threats of "officers" turning up on my doorstep if I don't subscribe.

The BBC could operate in exactly the same way. The reason they don't want to and lobby against change is that they know that in reality their bureaucratic regime full of massively overpaid leeches, making garbage that the vast majority don't want to watch, wouldn't last a year if people got to choose whether to pay or not.

The whole concept of a state broadcaster and TV licence should have died about 50 years ago. There's no excuse for it at all these days.

You may or may not have a valid point about the TV licence...

You seem to have a very flawed understanding of communism though. Is the army communist? You have to pay for it through your taxes and are not allowed to set up your own militia with tanks and anti aircraft machines.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

You may or may not have a valid point about the TV licence...

You seem to have a very flawed understanding of communism though. Is the army communist? You have to pay for it through your taxes and are not allowed to set up your own militia with tanks and anti aircraft machines.

You're taking things to silly extremes to try and make a non-point. In retaliation, I could suggest that you might want to see state-run supermarkets.

Communism is the government owning the means of production. Essential public services that don't have competition are often a (worthy) exception. E.g. privatising the utility companies was a stupid mistake, as you can't buy your water from a different company, and the apparent competition within energy and broadband markets is largely contrived, as you still get the same stuff down the same wires from the same source whoever's name is on the bill.

Broadcasting, entertainment and news are all already provided by commercial operators, all competing and running efficiently. The BBC doesn't have a valid purpose - everyone could still watch TV, listen to the radio and find out the news if it shut tomorrow.

It also gets to extort money from the population via legalised extortion. Their threatening letters are utterly ridiculous, they'd be shut down as a fraudulent company if they weren't part of the government.

At present you need to pay the BBC if you want to watch ITV, Sky or any other broadcaster live. While none of the money paid goes towards paying for what you're watching - it gets blown by the BBC on nonsense.

There's no logical case for the BBC continuing to exist as-is. It needs blowing up, privatising or whatever. Just stop extorting £15 a month from everyone for something that many don't want but pay for out of fear.

 

[opps]

You're taking things to silly extremes to try and make a non-point.

With respect- you claiming that the BBC is an example of communism was you taking things to extremes. Hence my reply.

The BBC, although owned by the government is independent, ie free from government interference editorially. Channel 4 is also owned by the government. Again, they operate freely, editorially. The government of the day is not able to tell them what to say.

Over the years, I worked for a lot of very, very high ranking BBC employees. They had significant incomes but they were, often, but not always, on par with with private broadcast companies.

One of my siblings used to earn up to £420,000 (with bonuses) when working for a smaller independent tv broadcaster. Her job was to sell advertising. She never worked for the BBC but conceded that if the BBC were to introduce adverts on air, it would seriously harm the privately owned channels.

I understand why you might object to the licence fee. The alternative might be the dumbing down of all TV and the end of advert free radio.

And, when it comes down to it, all free to air channels (including radio stations) have to pay Arqiva to broadcast. Remove the BBC from that, and the prices paid by everyone else increases.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

£420k is just not on planet earth, nobody is worth that unless they've cured cancer. The reason the BBC's insane salaries are on par with the rest of the industry is that the BBC's vast sack of money it spews out utterly distorts the entire market.

Get rid of the licence fee, they'll all need to compete against each other so will be forced to become competitive. ITV/Sky (about to merge) have a nice hold over ad revenue, of course they don't want to share this market with a major competitor.

There are lots of people receiving vast sums from the current cosy cartel who will exert great influence to keep the gravy train running. It sounds like you and your family are very much aboard. But at the other end of the spectrum, single mothers who can't afford to pay the licence fee are in court every day being ordered to hand their money over.

Broadcast TV itself is dying. The old dinosaurs are fighting to keep their territory, as you'd expect them to. We need a government that actually represents the people, not those who have their fingers in the till.

Personally, from a selfish perspective, I really like the licence fee, as it can be cancelled. We haven't paid it for 6 years now, so have saved somewhere around a grand, and saving another £15 every month. I emphasise all legally - I never watched the beeb's awful drivel when we had a licence, and if we do watch other broadcasters' output then it's on-demand, not live. So I don't need to pay. But I appreciate that I'm not most people - many are intimidated by their ridiculous letters making all kinds of threats so just pay the mob. Including our parents and lots of people who just don't know better and think it's a tax.

I fear that if this government change anything then it would be for the worse - probably loading the TV tax onto council tax or similar, making it compulsory. So any change made now would be likely to be worse, not better.

 

[opps]

£420k is just not on planet earth, nobody is worth that unless they've cured cancer. The reason the BBC's insane salaries are on par with the rest of the industry is that the BBC's vast sack of money it spews out utterly distorts the entire market.

I gave you an example of someone who sells advertising slots. How do wages at the BBC have any bearing on the amount of money that advertisers are willing to pay for advert slots?

Regarding the possible Sky ITV merger- with regards to selling advertising slots on the smaller channels (Dave Tv etc), the only two players are Sky and Ch4. Smaller channels find it cheaper to outsource that side to Sky or Ch4. Currently, I believe that only ITV and Five have their own inhouse teams.

You might well think the earnings of my sibling were outrageous but their job was look at the programming list and then decide which advertisers would be willing to pay the most. It really isn't as easy as it sounds. Her spouse used to earn a comparable amount- their job was to facilitate the movement of oil around the globe, which required being up to date on potential hot spots, economic conditions etc.

Many of my non-TV customers earn far more than that. I do not sit in judgement- frankly, I am grateful for the money they pay me.

 

[morqthana]

Given that all European countries (bar Belarus and Russia) have some form of democracy, and most have state owned utilities and or subsidised state owned 'industries', I guess you would then label most of Europe as communist?

Category:Government-owned companies of Europe - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org