Bbc

BBC Asks for Increased Subsidy Shocker!

Unsurprisingly, the BBC wants the government to increase the number of sporting events that have to be shown on “free-to-air” [sic] television. But it’s hard to see why there needs to be any list of “protected” sport on terrestial television in the first place, let alone why that list should be expanded. Here’s the BBC’s argument: The BBC insists the protected list should be retained and its submission argues that “to limit access to those willing and able to subscribe to pay-TV would threaten the fabric of our sporting and cultural nation”. Dominic Coles, chief operating officer, BBC Journalism and director of sports rights said: “The BBC believes the list

The BBC Tries to Catch-Up with its Audience

Apparently the BBC is finally going to show The Wire. Hurrah. Previously it’s only been available on FX in Britain. Well that’s all fine and dandy. But it’s not as though the series was a mystery. It debuted in 2002 and has received rave reviews form critics for at least the last three years. And yet no BBC (or Channel 4) executive thought to buy it before now? Strange. Rum too that the corporation should wait for much of its target audience to have already seen the show before deciding to screen it themselves. Just about anyone who has purchased the DVD box sets (all five series currently lie in

Annals of Punditry

Lord knows, we all blunder from time to time. Still, this is pretty impressive: “Each year, in my last Economic View before Christmas, I try to shed some light on economic events of the previous 12 months by comparing what has actually happened with expectations published here in early January. This year, even more than usual, reading back through January’s predictions has been a shock. Almost all have turned out to be wrong”. Anatole Kaletsky, The Times, 18/12/06.“My last article of every year looks back on the predictions I made in early January to shed some light on the economic and financial events of the previous 12 months. This tends

Annals of Punditry | 7 June 2008

Euro 2008 starts today and happily we’re spared the agony of watching Scotland play. The BBC are doing their best to persuade us that even a tournament “without England” might be worth watching even though most sentient people appreciate that England’s failure to qualify actually enhances the tournament, especially for the TV viewer who might have an increased chance of intelligent, astute, imaginative, perceptive TV coverage. Not so fast my friends! Here’s the BBC’s Gary Lineker explaining why he thinks Spain can win the tournament: It is open, but I am going for those perennial underachievers in Spain…the feeling is that [the] team chokes, but they have done well in

Good Day in Paris

The BBC: Paris protests mar Olympic relay This, naturally, is entirely incorrect. The problem would have been if there hadn’t been any protestors. Still, the BBC, which is sending more than 400 staff to Beijing, is heavily invested in the Olympics and keeps insisting that London 2012 is something to be jolly proud of whereas much of the population wished the IOC had handed the games to Paris instead.

Joke of the Day

This could be the most risible thing one’s seen yet from this risible government: The Labour Party has accused the BBC of bias towards the Tories. An official complaint has been lodged, claiming Radio 4’s Today programme has given David Cameron an easy ride in recent interviews. A senior party official accused the broadcaster of coming to a “special arrangement” with the Conservatives to avoid any “difficult questioning” of the Tory leader. But it’s also further evidence of something else: Brown’s goose is cooked. This is the sort of desperate floundering you associate with governments in their final, failing days. It’s not the action of a ministry bursting with important

Athens to their Rome for sure…

Sure, Fox and CNN are almost unwatchable (I’m tempted to switch to Al-Jazeera English) but the good folk at The Economist remind one that the BBC is perhaps even worse: 9:10 : Katty Kay (yes, that’s really her name), a BBC anchor, pronounced Hillary Clinton the victor in Tennessee: this was especially notable, says Katty, because Al Gore lost the state in 2000, so it was a relief to see a Democrat finally win. You know, in a Democratic primary, that’s probably going to happen. Pretty much every time.