Television BBC hemorrhaging sports. Is it worth the money?

[Greenlantern101]

The BBC has lost yet another sport to satellite TV. A big one. The olympics. From 2022 you will have to watch it on Eurosport.

This got me thinking about how many sports the BBC has lost over the years.

Half of F1, no doubt to be all of it from 2018
The Grand National
The Derby
Royal Ascot
The French Open Tennis
The Open Golf championship from 2017
The Olympics from 2022
FA cup football
Test Match Cricket

I'm sure there are more. So all the BBC has left is Darts,Snooker, Six nations Rugby and Wimbledon...and half of F1.

TV licence costs £145.50
I want a refund.

 

[Brogan]

Look on the bright side - they've all been replaced with "reality" shows and period dramas.

Oh and Doctor Who.

I can't actually think of a program I have watched on the BBC for a long time.

 

[sushifiesta]

That's a shame. The Olympics is one of the events that must be shown live on free to air TV in the UK though, so it won't disappear behind a pay wall at least.

If you want the BBC to be able to compete with pay TV then the licence fee would have to be higher, frankly. I think they get roughly £3.5 billion per year in total from licence fees. Sky will be paying £1.4 billion per year just for their new premier league broadcast deal.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

They get just over £5bn when you factor in sales from BBC Worldwide, of the programmes we've already paid to make.

 

[Greenlantern101]

I think the licence needs to stop. Switch to adverts, it works for everyone else.

 

[cider_and_toast]

This is a tricky one. Having just read the story it would seem that the IOC have sold the rights to broadcast the Olympics on a Europe wide basis not a country by country basis. Given that this does not allow non european wide broadcasters a chance to offer the same service without having to negotiate seperate country by country deals, how that squares with EU competition law is beyond me.

The BBC, much like other public bodies we can talk about, have been producing less and less output but charging more and more money to do it.

 

[Mephistopheles]

The BBC world service could have put in a bid...

 

[FB]

Just to put this in context, the BBC hasn't lost the Olympics they will, however, have to pay Discovery/Eurosport if they want to show the event rather than negotiating with the IOC. As for adverts, absolutely not otherwise we will end up with the same shit we get on ITV, C4 and C5. I am, perhaps, a bit old fashioned but the BBC is worth every penny.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Does that include every penny of the tens of millions of pounds they waste?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...When-will-the-BBC-stop-wasting-our-money.html

And they don't even deny it.

http://www.alphr.com/news/enterprise/382057/bbc-admits-100-million-it-project-was-a-waste

 

[FB]

Every big organisation wastes money. I think the BBC, for what it costs, is well worth it. I'm sure there are things they could do better but they could also become ITV and then we would really be in the shit.

 

[sushifiesta]

And they don't even deny it.

You'd prefer them to lie or come up with some bullshit excuse? Or to keep chuecking money at a failing project?

 

[Mephistopheles]

I'd prefer they didn't waste my money in the first place, I'd prefer they stopped getting rid of sports because they say they can't afford it, I'd prefer they stopped making stupid brainless reality shows and pointless talent shows and mind numbingly boring period dramas.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Mephistopheles that 100 million project is extraordinary. I'm no expert but, It sounds like a 'file server'. How did they manage to make a file server cost 100 million?...and not work. Amaaaazing.

making its content more accessible to staff across different locations after the move to Salford. That included tools to let staff produce and share content via a central database and making it easier to dig into the BBC’s vast archives.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Beats the hell out of me..

 

[Titch]

It's the BBC they are good at everything.

 

[cider_and_toast]

As any one who works for a big public body will tell you, it's 'Golden Bolt" syndrome. Public bodies, being on the whole not for profit, are absolutely shite at writing contracts. In a quote pinched from a book about the Space Shuttle, NASA were quoted $5 for a nut and bolt, actually paid $20 by the time construction started and could have purchased a dozen of the same bolts from any hardware store for the $2.

 

[Greenlantern101]

With a rapidly growing ageing population this is another nail in the coffin for the licence fee.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33414693

 

[Titch]

It's the Governments policy, so they should pay the bill. IMO

 

[gethinceri]

I think I only watch Wales playing rugby on the BBC, I don't think I can recall a single show I've watched on the BBC in the last year.
I do, however, have Radio 6 on almost constantly.

 

[Jos the Boss]

Hey, I like Doctor Who and it is worth every parents that my parents pay! Even though most TV is watched online nowadays, but BBC did regain the FA Cup in their defence