BBC4 - bad news or good?

[kernelbogey]

The Guardian reports:

BBC Four is to cease commissioning new programmes and become an archive-focused channel as part of the ongoing significant cost-cutting drive across the corporation.

and also:

While the corporation announced plans last week to double its arts and music spending on BBC Two, it annual plan stated that “this approach will necessitate a shift away from commissioning a high volume of lower-cost programmes on BBC Four, which are less effective at reaching audiences on the channel and on iPlayer”.

Perhaps the silver lining is that we may be able to see more archived music programmes on BBC4...?

[oddoneout]

The Guardian reports:

BBC Four is to cease commissioning new programmes and become an archive-focused channel as part of the ongoing significant cost-cutting drive across the corporation.

and also:

While the corporation announced plans last week to double its arts and music spending on BBC Two, it annual plan stated that “this approach will necessitate a shift away from commissioning a high volume of lower-cost programmes on BBC Four, which are less effective at reaching audiences on the channel and on iPlayer”.

Perhaps the silver lining is that we may be able to see more archived music programmes on BBC4...?

Lots of TOTP repeats?
Longer term the future of BBC4 will presumably depend on how much material the commissioning for BBC2 generates in that case - which doesn't sound like recipe for survival to me.

[Frances_iom]

Lots of TOTP repeats?
Longer term the future of BBC4 will presumably depend on how much material the commissioning for BBC2 generates in that case - which doesn't sound like recipe for survival to me.

The BBC is positioning itself for life after the licence and the need to move to an advert driven mass appeal offering for broadcast items, BBC4 becomes near zero cost other than the transmission cost - I suspect R4 will continue, probably with public subvention for some form of news that can just about be argued not to be government propaganda (though I suspect it will be), R3 if it survives(unlikely in my opinion) will be subscription via the net, R1 + R2 easily move to become advert driven commercial radio. It looks as tho their initial plans were based on a 2025 start on a non-licence model but covid has slowed government legislation but they are guessing the Tories will get back in 2025 (or earlier) and keep their promises to the commercial lobby to remove the licence and thus remove any competition from the BBC.

[johncorrigan]

Perhaps the silver lining is that we may be able to see more archived music programmes on BBC4...?

BBC TV 4 extra, then, kb?

[Bryn]

Lots of TOTP repeats?
Longer term the future of BBC4 will presumably depend on how much material the commissioning for BBC2 generates in that case - which doesn't sound like recipe for survival to me.

Let's face it, BBC FOUR has degenerated, in recent years, into what is pretty much Radio 1 with pictures.

[oddoneout]

Let's face it, BBC FOUR has degenerated, in recent years, into what is pretty much Radio 1 with pictures.

On Fridays certainly, but that I can live with as the rest of the time, certainly in the past few months I've found more of interest than for a long time. It had got to the point where I didn't always bother even looking at the BBC4 info as it just seemed to be as you say R1 with pictures, but it seems better arranged now.

[kernelbogey]

BBC TV 4 extra, then, kb?

My blue sky thinking is that there must be a very large archive of classical music (Proms!), ballet and theatre which could be drawn upon in an archive-driven BBC4. For most of us this could be broadcast in the middle of the night, always assuming that it was subsequently available on iPlayer.

[DracoM]

Help..............Sat night Scandi Noirs......? Must NOT go!!

[LMcD]

One of the (very) few beneficial side-effects of Covid has been the opportunity to (re)watch high-quality BBC dramas such as 'Elizabeth R'. That said, it's sad to see how BBC4 has gone downhill at an increasingly alarming rate.

[gurnemanz]

Let's face it, BBC FOUR has degenerated, in recent years, into what is pretty much Radio 1 with pictures.

I've checked the schedule. Except for one hour at 8pm on Friday almost nothing this week falls into that category unless you also write off the following Fleetwood Mac profile. Admittedly quite a few repeats eg last night's Art of France with Andrew Graham-Dixon but that is surely good enough to merit a second showing. Likewise Treasures of the Anglo-Saxons tonight. Yesterday's Storyville documentary was new and they are the best around. Last December they showed the excellent newly filmed Uncle Vanya with Toby Jones whose theatre run was cruelly cut short by Covid. Still available. Some interesting looking theatre from the Lyric Belfast coming up tomorrow.

The channel is obviously not beyond criticism but the above statement is not remotely justified. I find plenty of good programmes to watch and hope this continues to be the case.

[Dave2002]

The channel is obviously not beyond criticism but the above statement is not remotely justified. I find plenty of good programmes to watch and hope this continues to be the case.

We would be besides ourselves if we didn't get the chance to try out our foreign languages skills with the various imports from abroad over the weekend.

Thanks for mentioning the Art of France - we've not seen that - but we have watched several other programmes with Andrew Graham-Dixon. Very good.

What exactly does commissioning new programmes mean anyway? More Strictly? Put the money into things that it seems many people want. More Line of Duty, or Bloodlands?

Arguably the extra funding for BBC2 if spent on arts and music could be welcolmed - if it really materialises, but cutting out lower cost programmes on BBC Four simply to go for the dreaded "reach" - Yuk! There are enough "mass-appeal" programmes already.

[kernelbogey]

...Yesterday's Storyville documentary was new and they are the best around....

If you can tolerate 105 minues of Romanian dialogue with subtitles, this is a terrific story of state-wide corruption in the Romanian health service exposed by relentless good journalism: thoroughly recommended.

[Dave2002]

Mullţumesc.

[LHC]

I wonder how this squares with the BBC's recent announcement that BBC 4 was to become "the home of arts and music performance" and the appointment of Patrick Holland as the Director of Factual, Arts and Classical Music genre, together with two new highly paid executives under him: a new Head Of Arts And Classical Music and a dedicated TV commissioner responsible for the BBC Proms and classical music on TV to "guarantee classical music specialism is retained at the heart of commissioning within the broader factual team".

Does this mean that new Proms performances and other classical works will now be shown on BBC2 rather than BBC4 (unlikely in my view)?

I'm also not sure the change to BBC4 becoming an archive only channel will make that much difference in practice. I think that last night's Storyville is the only new programme on BBC4 all week, with everything else being a repeat, and that this is a common pattern with only 1 or maybe 2 completely new programmes being shown each week.

And while repeats of Andrew Graham Dixon's art history programmes are always welcome, his most recent series was the four part series on the Royal Collections that was first shown almost 3 years ago in 2018, while his last one-off documentary was in 2019.

[LMcD]

I've checked the schedule. Except for one hour at 8pm on Friday almost nothing this week falls into that category unless you also write off the following Fleetwood Mac profile. Admittedly quite a few repeats eg last night's Art of France with Andrew Graham-Dixon but that is surely good enough to merit a second showing. Likewise Treasures of the Anglo-Saxons tonight. Yesterday's Storyville documentary was new and they are the best around. Last December they showed the excellent newly filmed Uncle Vanya with Toby Jones whose theatre run was cruelly cut short by Covid. Still available. Some interesting looking theatre from the Lyric Belfast coming up tomorrow.

The channel is obviously not beyond criticism but the above statement is not remotely justified. I find plenty of good programmes to watch and hope this continues to be the case.

Outstanding - the first time I've ever really 'got anything' out of a Chekhov play. I actually cared what happened to the characters, which for me is always the acid test when judging a drama.