[thechat] PBS vs. BBC Funding

[William Anderson]

John Handelaar wrote:
> On Thu, 2002-12-19 at 16:55, Roger Austin wrote:
> >   How does the BBC do it? Do they own the local stations that carry
> > their programming?
>
> We're a *really* densely-populated island or 5 here.
>
> There's no local TV to speak of from the BBC (except
> about 6 hours a week of 'regional' programming in the
> English regions, almost all local news, and maybe
> another 6-12 hours a week for Scotland and Wales which
> includes Cymraeg and Gailige progs).  The BBC operates
> 2 'normal' national TV channels, 5 rather cheaper
> ones which are available only on cable and satellite.

It might be interesting to note what services there are, and what they do
...

BBC One: General entertainment channel, attempting to fulfil the basic
Reithian values - "Educate, Inform, Entertain".  Alternatives: ITV1, Sky
One, five, UK Gold, Living.

BBC Two: Created in 1964, BBC Two has a remit to offer "an alternative and
more experimental style of [tv] broadcasting".  Alternatives: Channel Four

Everyone in the UK can nominally receive BBCs One and Two on all major
television broadcast platforms (analogue terrestrial, digital terrestrial,
digital satellite, digital cable).

BBC Choice: Created in 1998 as what I would call a beer and lifestyle
channel, BBC Choice was originally intended to complement and extend the
programming from BBCs One and Two - e.g. after watching a drama on BBC One,
you could turn to BBC Choice and watch a making-of, or a documentary on the
author.  It was (and still is) used for fast-turnaround repeats, where if
you've missed (e.g.) Eastenders, you can catch the repeat a few hours later,
instead of waiting for the omnibus edition on Sunday.  BBC Choice is to be
rebranded BBC Three in February 2003, and its new remit includes
entertainment, drama and public service programming.  Alternatives: Sky One,
E4, ITV2.

BBC Four: Originally called BBC Knowledge, which was an education channel
launched in 1999, it was rebranded as BBC Four in March 2002, and is home to
drama, arts and informative programming.  Alternatives: Artsworld.

BBC News 24: Launched in November 1997 (before virtually anyone could watch
it!), News 24 is the BBCs much maligned 24 hour news station.  Personally I
find the channel sometimes lags behind CNN when it comes to major
international news events, but for UK news it's somewhat hard to beat.
Alternatives: CNNi, Sky News, ITV News Channel, Euronews, Fox News.

CBBC and CBeebies: Extensions of BBCs One and Two childrens programming
strands, CBBC is programming for kids, while CBeebies is aimed specifically
at pre-teens.

BBC Parliament: The window into the government of the UK, BBC Parliament
broadcasts live and archived coverage of activities in Westminster, the
Scottish Parliament, and the Welsh and Irish National Assemblies.  It covers
not only Commons and similar events, but also Select Committee hearings,
party conferences, trade union conferences, and so on.

BBCs Choice, Four, News 24, Parliament, CBBC and CBeebies are only available
on digital terrestrial, satellite and cable.

Also operating underneath the channels are the Ceefax (analogue only) and
BBCi Text (digital only) text services.  Ceefax is run by News and Current
Affairs, while BBCi is run by BBCi Development and Services, formerly BBC
New Media.

These channels are only available within the United Kingdom.  Also in the
UK, the BBC operate the following:

- in partnership with Sianel Pedwar Cymru (Channel Four Wales), S4C, S4C
  Digital, S4C 2

- in partnership with Flextech/Telewest, UK Gold, UK Gold+1, UK Gold
  2, UK Horizons, UK Style, UK Drama, UK History, UK Food;

- in partnership with Discovery, Discovery Animal Planet.

Outside the UK, you have BBC Prime, BBC World, BBC America, BBC Canada and
BBC Kids (Canada), and UKTV (Australia) (in partnership with
Foxtel/Pearson).


http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/ for more info.

> Radio:  5 national stations, a BBC local radio station
> *everywhere* (except, bizarrely, Scotland, Wales and
> N Ireland where apparently one each is enough) - all
> of which produce about 18 hours a day of their own
> programmes, and relay out to either Radio2 or the World
> Service overnight.  On digital/satellite/internet only
> the Beeb also operates a secondary service for Radio 5,

... called Radio Five Live Extra ...

> BBC 6 Music, and since last week, BBC7 (which is a
> rolling compilation of the best comedy and drama radio
> in the archive).

and as you pointed out, you also missed BBC 1Xtra, playing the best "new
black music" </unquote>

There are also nominally national-regional services:  Radio Scotland, Radio
Nan Gaidheal (Gaelic language programming), Radio Ulster, Radio Wales, Radio
Cymru (Welsh language programming) ... along with a multitude of local BBC
radio stations, most of which operate in England.  Northern Ireland has one
local BBC station (Radio Foyle, serving Londonderry), Scotland has two
(Radios Orkney and Shetland), and Guernsey and Jersey have their own
services.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/ for more.


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