The BBC (Scotland)

[welshbairn]

^^^Gets proven wrong > demands more evidence. Every single time. I'm not playing.

[SandyCromarty]

MY opinion that BBC Scotland in it's present form would not  be financially viable after independence, which hopefully I will see in my lifetime, is in my opinion valid.

RTE in Ireland for instance is public licensed and advertising funded, but if you have viewed it as I have you will know that it is an inferior product to what it was some years back, this is mostly due to the reduced advertising revenue caused by so many sat channels garnering and costing a lot of advertising cheaply, so that revenue which was at one time the property of just a few ITV channels has been spread thinly, think how many SKY channels are all fighting for and undercutting others to get the business.

The Lithuanian TV and Radio service LRT, as mentioned above, is funded by the government and by advertisements.

And I almost forgot the amount of advertising revenue now being generated on the internet, including this site. 

[Baxter Parp]

51 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

^^^Gets proven wrong > demands more evidence. Every single time. I'm not playing.

Good god, what proof?  Your say-so?

[strichener]

50 minutes ago, SandyCromarty said:

MY opinion that BBC Scotland in it's present form would not  be financially viable after independence, which hopefully I will see in my lifetime, is in my opinion valid.

RTE in Ireland for instance is public licensed and advertising funded, but if you have viewed it as I have you will know that it is an inferior product to what it was some years back, this is mostly due to the reduced advertising revenue caused by so many sat channels garnering and costing a lot of advertising cheaply, so that revenue which was at one time the property of just a few ITV channels has been spread thinly, think how many SKY channels are all fighting for and undercutting others to get the business.

The Lithuanian TV and Radio service LRT, as mentioned above, is funded by the government and by advertisements.

And I almost forgot the amount of advertising revenue now being generated on the internet, including this site. 

No it isn't advertising was banned in 2015 and all funding is now provided by the government. 

[Baxter Parp]

49 minutes ago, SandyCromarty said:

MY opinion that BBC Scotland in it's present form would not  be financially viable after independence, which hopefully I will see in my lifetime, is in my opinion valid.

In it's present form Scotland contributes £350m to the BBC, most of which is spent elsewhere (BBC Scotland's budget is £120m IIRC).  If we cannot provide a decent service with £350m we don't deserve one.

[SandyCromarty]

3 minutes ago, strichener said:

No it isn't advertising was banned in 2015 and all funding is now provided by the government. 

My mistake, I foolishly referred to a Wiki feed.

But you will see where I am coming from regarding required broadcasting income, STV since Sat TV ,and it's advertising has really kicked in, virtually shuts down at midnight.

 

[SandyCromarty]

9 minutes ago, Baxter Parp said:

In it's present form Scotland contributes £350m to the BBC, most of which is spent elsewhere (BBC Scotland's budget is £120m IIRC).  If we cannot provide a decent service with £350m we don't deserve one.

That is an impressive amount for our population base, where did you garner this info from?

I came across the following BBC Licencing statement in the report below, it is dated 2015 so has there been a further disclosure?

How much TV Licence fee revenue is collected from areas such as Scotland, Wales, North East England, Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey?

The BBC doesn’t collate information on licence fee revenue by location. For the purposes of administering the television licensing system, licence fee revenue is not configured by geographical location, as the BBC has no reason for doing this. The total licence fee revenue collected from 2008/09 to 2014/15 is detailed in the TV Licensing Costs of Collection chart above.

Further information is published in the BBC’s Annual Report and Accounts. The latest Annual Report (2014-15) is available on the BBC website at -

[strichener]

11 minutes ago, SandyCromarty said:

My mistake, I foolishly referred to a Wiki feed.

But you will see where I am coming from regarding required broadcasting income, STV since Sat TV ,and it's advertising has really kicked in, virtually shuts down at midnight.

 

If iScotland kept the TV licence and at it's current amount then and BBC Scotland equivalent would see a net increase in income.

A quick look at the 2016/17 Annual report on page 97 (available here) shows that the BBC income from Scotland was approx. £321m and expenditure £233.  £88m gets you a few Lithuanian TV companies.

[Crossbill]

1 hour ago, welshbairn said:

It stemmed from a Today programme report by Andrew Gilligan in May of 2003. There was lots of critical coverage right through the war, and leading up to it.

What happened to Andrew Gilligan?  I can only vaguely remember, but wasn't he essentially hounded out of the BBC on the back of this story?

[ICTJohnboy]

1 hour ago, Baxter Parp said:

So far you've got one report in 2003 that led to Greg Dyke's resignation.

 

It was the Hutton Report, which was a Tony Blair sponsored whitewash,  that was the final nail in Dykes coffin. 

[SandyCromarty]

17 minutes ago, strichener said:

If iScotland kept the TV licence and at it's current amount then and BBC Scotland equivalent would see a net increase in income.

A quick look at the 2016/17 Annual report on page 97 (available here) shows that the BBC income from Scotland was approx. £321m and expenditure £233.  £88m gets you a few Lithuanian TV companies.

Fair enough and Thanks.

Lets look at Ireland's RTE, Ireland has a similar population as ours, 4.75 million, their licence fee is again similar but as far as I am aware to sustain their broadcasting they depend on a sizeable percentage of their income from advertising.

All I have said is that we could not as an independent country sustain a wholly government funded TV and Radio service in it's present form.

How's the Mormond Hotel doing?

[welshbairn]

Just now, Crossbill said:

What happened to Andrew Gilligan?  I can only vaguely remember, but wasn't he essentially hounded out of the BBC on the back of this story?

Aye. He didn't come out of it too well, basically grassed on that scientist who ended up topping himself.

[Baxter Parp]

7 minutes ago, SandyCromarty said:

Fair enough and Thanks.

Lets look at Ireland's RTE, Ireland has a similar population as ours, 4.75 million, their licence fee is again similar but as far as I am aware to sustain their broadcasting they depend on a sizeable percentage of their income from advertising.

RTE's income, including advertising, in 2013 was 320m Euros. We can achieve that without advertising.

[Menzel]

I'm constantly baffled that there are actually people out there that think there's such a thing as unbiased or objective journalism.

[SandyCromarty]

1 hour ago, Baxter Parp said:

RTE's income, including advertising, in 2013 was 320m Euros. We can achieve that without advertising.

I am totally for independence as is my family which includes a regional SNP councillor many door to door activists and we all contribute to the SNP coffers monthly.

But I am a realist.

All I am saying that the BBC we have access to presently would not be sustainable,  for instance Radio Scotland costs in 2016 was £22.9 million, BBC Alba and Radio Nan Gaidheal which have a limited audience costs £9.4 million. I know that these figures seem little against £320 million income but those costings are for cheaply produced programming, consider the cost of producing drama's, sit com's, documentaries and sport etc on television then you start to really spend.

Consider Strictly which half the population like and the cost of producing that, we couldn't afford the extravagance of producing that show and like many other countries would have to buy it in costing millions, Top Gear is another example.

Lineker and Evans are on a combined salary of nearly £4 million, we as a small nation could not produce major productions and top sport as we have access to now let alone the salaries involved.

BBC Scotland produces successful but low budget programmes such as Still Game and River City and that's the format.

 

[bob the tank]

Aye. He didn't come out of it too well, basically grassed on that scientist who ended up murdering himself.

FTFY

[strichener]

3 hours ago, SandyCromarty said:

I am totally for independence as is my family which includes a regional SNP councillor many door to door activists and we all contribute to the SNP coffers monthly.

But I am a realist.

All I am saying that the BBC we have access to presently would not be sustainable,  for instance Radio Scotland costs in 2016 was £22.9 million, BBC Alba and Radio Nan Gaidheal which have a limited audience costs £9.4 million. I know that these figures seem little against £320 million income but those costings are for cheaply produced programming, consider the cost of producing drama's, sit com's, documentaries and sport etc on television then you start to really spend.

Consider Strictly which half the population like and the cost of producing that, we couldn't afford the extravagance of producing that show and like many other countries would have to buy it in costing millions, Top Gear is another example.

Lineker and Evans are on a combined salary of nearly £4 million, we as a small nation could not produce major productions and top sport as we have access to now let alone the salaries involved.

BBC Scotland produces successful but low budget programmes such as Still Game and River City and that's the format.

 

Jeesh, losing strictly would be a sore one to take.  Weighing it all up, I think that may just swing me to remaining in the UK.

I wonder if the BBC would refuse to licence it to Scotland when it already does so to over 50 countries.  In fact referencing back to earlier posts, Lithuania has licenced the format.

As for sports coverage, the BBC currently spends more on the wages for Match of the Day presenters than it does on Scottish Football IN TOTAL.  The last deal announced was reportedly £2.7m per annum.  Compare this with Match of The Day which cost them £204,000,000 for 3 years. 

We currently subsidise this shite.

 

[SandyCromarty]

14 hours ago, strichener said:

Jeesh, losing strictly would be a sore one to take.  Weighing it all up, I think that may just swing me to remaining in the UK.

I wonder if the BBC would refuse to licence it to Scotland when it already does so to over 50 countries.  In fact referencing back to earlier posts, Lithuania has licenced the format.

As for sports coverage, the BBC currently spends more on the wages for Match of the Day presenters than it does on Scottish Football IN TOTAL.  The last deal announced was reportedly £2.7m per annum.  Compare this with Match of The Day which cost them £204,000,000 for 3 years. 

We currently subsidise this shite.

 

The BBC makes £500 million out of those fifty countries for licensing, women love that show so going by what the BBC makes out of it I would say it would cost us in the region of say at least £5 Million to broadcast that show alone for a couple of months. How much does programmes like Blue Planet cost.

Then there is operating costs, the UK wide BBC licence fee collection cost in 2016 was £114 million, given we have a 12th of the UK population we would be around the £8 million mark for that wee operation, then there are station offices and buildings throughout Scotland, vehicles, over 1200 employees in Scotland etc etc. 

Anyway enough said, I'm sticking to my guns in that there is no way we could continue the type of programming we have presently.

[Baxter Parp]

16 hours ago, SandyCromarty said:

All I am saying that the BBC we have access to presently would not be sustainable,  for instance Radio Scotland costs in 2016 was £22.9 million, BBC Alba and Radio Nan Gaidheal which have a limited audience costs £9.4 million. I know that these figures seem little against £320 million income but those costings are for cheaply produced programming, consider the cost of producing drama's, sit com's, documentaries and sport etc on television then you start to really spend.

How does RTE manage it?

16 hours ago, SandyCromarty said:

Consider Strictly which half the population like and the cost of producing that, we couldn't afford the extravagance of producing that show and like many other countries would have to buy it in costing millions, Top Gear is another example.

We'd buy it. We don't have to produce it.

16 hours ago, SandyCromarty said:

Lineker and Evans are on a combined salary of nearly £4 million, we as a small nation could not produce major productions and top sport as we have access to now let alone the salaries involved.

We wouldn't be paying their salaries, we'd be buying the program or producing our own highlights program at a fraction of the cost.  Why we'd be interested in English Premier League highlights is a bit beyond me though.

 

16 hours ago, SandyCromarty said:

BBC Scotland produces successful but low budget programmes such as Still Game and River City and that's the format.

And national programs like Mrs. Brown's Boys, Antique Road Hunt, Eggheads and others that the BBC will pay BBC Scotland for.

You're not a realist, you've got the cringe.

[Baxter Parp]

24 minutes ago, SandyCromarty said:

The BBC makes £500 million out of those fifty countries for licensing, women love that show so going by what the BBC makes out of it I would say it would cost us in the region of say at least £5 Million to broadcast that show alone for a couple of months. How much does programmes like Blue Planet cost.

BBC Worldwide made profits of 150m on sales of 1Bn for everything, not just Strictly, where are you getting 500m from?

26 minutes ago, SandyCromarty said:

Anyway enough said, I'm sticking to my guns in that there is no way we could continue the type of programming we have presently.

"I am wrong and don't care, nyah".