Top earners at the BBC and elsewhere

Goooner

Believe it or not I actually agree with virtually everything you say about inequalities in society, I just don't agree with your solution.

tapzilla2k

Apart from the marque shows and attempts to ape ITV, the BBC doesn't chase ratings as much as it appears to do. I'm sure a lot of the documentaries on BBC Four are for niche audiences a lot of the time, thus fulfilling the BBC's Royal Charter Obligations in that regard. Though what you have to keep in mind is the BBC Brand gives the top stars a much wider platform than other broadcasters can, so they will always be attracted by the BBC. Take Jeremy Clarkson for example, he did extremely well out of Top Gear up until the point he flogged the show back to the BBC. You get a hit show on the BBC and it's almost guaranteed to go global via the BBC's commercial operations.

Make the most of this, the BBC is allegedly shifting a few of it's top stars over to BBC studios apparently which is a commercial part of the BBC, thus pay deals won't be open to public debate. Ideally (as in some other parts of the world), I would force the BBC and Commercial broadcasters to release pay information, then we could have a real debate about gender pay gaps and so on.

IronGiant

Q: Why did they close BBC 3 as a TV channel ?
A: Ratings weren't good enough.

Sonic67

You could say, why did they even need a BBC3, it's not like 1 & 2 are chock full of original shows and never show repeats.

la gran siete

They closed it to save money, most of which as I recall got shifted into the BBC Drama budget. Moving BBC Three online was the brainchild of a now departed BBC boss whose name escapes me at the moment.

It was to make niche programming for 18-34 year olds. A lot of programmes that were on BBC Three would have never been commissioned for broadcast on BBC1 and BBC2 (a few shows did make that transition). The BBC has a remit to make niche programming for various groups. BBC Three made sense at the time, later on not so much. You could make the argument now that why should the BBC have broadcast channels at all with the associated costs when they could shift all content to the iPlayer to be streamed on demand at people's leisure.

Jezza99

A bit naive.  BBC3 used to show a lot of programming after 9:00pm that is now shown on ITV2 or FOX.

Jezza99

The money for BBC3 went to fund a new Scottish BBC Channel.

BBC3 was closed allegedly due to lack of money. One year later a new Scottish channel opened. Did the BBC find money down the back of the sofa?

If it's down to ratings, moving BBC3 online didn't help. The viewers for it dropped even further.

la gran siete

oh you mean in years gone by like his championing of the iRA Hamas  or whatever other rubbish the right like to impugn his character with?

Jezza99

Yes he's done plenty of that as well. It's all in the public domain, so you'd look a bit silly trying to deny it...

la gran siete

i am saying time has moved and no one gives a tinker's cuss about that anymore, other than bunch of rightwingers trying to make an issue of something long forgotten.He may have given Chavez regime the thumbs up at the time because he thought it was the right way for Venezuela to go.Subsequent events proved that all was not as it seemed so i very much doubt he would endorse Venezuela today.By the way, I should also point out that Thatcher was great chums with  one of the regions dictators - Pinochet so much so she invited him round to tea.Even that is history and most people would remember for her neo liberal policies