BBC Three

[french frank]

Good for the footy on Sat and Sun! Not much else although there are the odd interesting non-sport discussions.

I would have taken it for a commercial channel by its style. Close it down! - it'll be more expensive than the new BBC Three.

[Honoured Guest]

This winter, BBC Three broadcast two new series which I found about the best on any tv channel - Tough Young Teachers, a series of six hour-long documentaries which followed several high-flyer graduates in their first classroom year on an accelerated, in-at-the-deep-end, teacher training programme, and Uncle, an original six-part situation comedy series about the developing bond between a depressed, no-hoper musical dropout and his twelve-year-old vulnerable nephew.

Dave2002, the BBC News stories are very clear that the online BBC Three service from October 2015 would have a content budget of £25million, which is significantly less than the current BBC Three broadcast channel which has a content budget of £85million. £30million of this budget saving will be reinvested in BBC1 drama, to protect its quality and quantity. There are unquantified additional costs of setting up the new BBC Three online service.

[Honoured Guest]

I would have taken it for a commercial channel by its style. Close it down! - it'll be more expensive than the new BBC Three.

Of course, there are additional cuts still to be announced, to make up the required £100million total annual cuts in this round.

5 Live has been very successful in engaging with its target audience, and I would be very surprised if a service cut were proposed for it in this round.

Other BBC services are on shakier ground ...

[cloughie]

I'd never heard Radio 5 Live before ....

ff - you astonish me - I don't expect it to be your cuppa but I thought that as a spokesperson for Radio 3, in conversation from time to time with the Beeb's powers that be that you would listen to range of its provision, even if the AM reception, certainly out west, is so poor.

[Dave2002]

This winter, BBC Three broadcast two new series which I found about the best on any tv channel - Tough Young Teachers, a series of six hour-long documentaries which followed several high-flyer graduates in their first classroom year on an accelerated, in-at-the-deep-end, teacher training programme, and Uncle, an original six-part situation comedy series about the developing bond between a depressed, no-hoper musical dropout and his twelve-year-old vulnerable nephew.

Dave2002, the BBC News stories are very clear that the online BBC Three service from October 2015 would have a content budget of £25k, which is significantly less than the current BBC Three broadcast channel which has a content budget of £85k. £30k of this budget saving will be reinvested in BBC1 drama, to protect its quality and quantity. There are unquantified additional costs of setting up the new BBC Three online service.

OK - I watched the Tough Young Teachers series. I would hesitate to argue that it was one of the best programmes on any channel, but it wasn't bad - perhaps a response to Educating Essex and Educating Yorkshire of previous years from Channel 4. It took a couple of us "oldies" to make this series known to some younger viewers - so it's not obvious that it was a natural series for BBC 3.

Surely many programmes are now made by external production companies, though they may be commissioned to do so by broadcast channels. It does not necessarily follow that lack of a single output channel will mean that a programme won't be produced and broadcast somewhere else, though this does reduce opportunities for programme makers to get their work distributed.

Regarding the budgeting, you mention figures of £25k and £85k. Are you sure of these? OK - interns are free (!) but you'd hardly get a single programme production team together for £25k, let alone be able to generate and administer the output of a regular broadcast channel. I'm not involved in media, but I find those figures far too low to be realistic. At those rates I could perhaps even start my own TV production company, as could many others. I don't intend to try, you'll perhaps be glad to hear. Perhaps, however, if it's so cheap a group of us round here should have a go!

[mercia]

did someone mean million rather than k ??

[Frances_iom]

did someone mean million rather than k ??

numerate mediah people ? you must be joking

[Gordon]

..... even if the AM reception, certainly out west, is so poor.

Get DAB!! http://www.ukfree.tv/dabtx.php?tx=al...ORNWALLENGLAND

One of the bugbears of R5L is the AM reception especially in the ca, frustrating on a winter evening waiting for the footy results.

[gurnemanz]

I would have taken it for a commercial channel by its style. Close it down! - it'll be more expensive than the new BBC Three.

I assume this is a provocation but I will rise to the bait anyway. I only listen to BBC channels but it seems to me that it must be a meaningless generalisation to refer to the "style" of commercial channels, as if they were all the same in some way.
Now I am retired, I listen to radio (and recordings) all day. Classical music is one of my main obsessions in life but I am not so obsessed as to want it all the time. Five Live is obviously essential for sport but I listen to it a lot at other times, especially to avoid dumbed-down mornings on R3 and Woman's Hour and weak comedy on R4. Five Live can admittedly become rather too tabloid for my taste at times and I tend to avoid the phone-ins and vox pop material simply by changing channels.
Danny Baker is a great and totally original Sony-award winning broadcaster (not just for blokes) and his Saturday morning show reduces me to listening to BaL on i-Player.
I am also very interested in current affairs and, as far as I know, Five Live is the only channel which gives you important announcements, press conferences, parliamentary debates and other ongoing rolling news as they happen. The clue is in the word "Live" in the station's title.
The two-hour film review programme on Friday afternoon with the Observer's reviewer, Mark Kermode, and the excellent Simon Mayo is the most entertaining and comprehensive film programme on the radio.
Another good listen is the discussion after midnight on the Stephen Nolan show on Sundays with Charlie Wolf and Bishop Stephen Lowe, which I stay awake to hear.

[Honoured Guest]

I also assumed it was a provocation, and highly ill-judged (even as a joke) to claim to come to a definitive judgment on an entire radio station on the basis of a single broadcast interview!

[cloughie]

Get DAB!! http://www.ukfree.tv/dabtx.php?tx=al...ORNWALLENGLAND

One of the bugbears of R5L is the AM reception especially in the ca, frustrating on a winter evening waiting for the footy results.

Got DAB for home listening but not in-car! Even more frustrating on winter evenings is listening to extensive meaningless ramblings on the champions league when they could be telling us championship scores.

[eighthobstruction]

ff - you astonish me - I don't expect it to be your cuppa but I thought that as a spokesperson for Radio 3, in conversation from time to time with the Beeb's powers that be that you would listen to range of its provision, even if the AM reception, certainly out west, is so poor.

My goodness ff, haven't you had the joy of hearing Robbie Savage inarticulately talking to inarticulate football fans who are entirely without any insight or able to understand a different point of view etc etc on the 606 programme....

[french frank]

I assume this is a provocation

Sorry - it wasn't a provocation, it was a joke (I mean the 'Close it down, bit'), though it is the second most expensive network station, even having had its budget slashed in the last year or so).

I actually think it's more important to spend my own time speaking to people for whom particular services are their 'cuppa tea' - which is why I've been asking this morning about BBC Three. I did watch the BBC Three coverage of the Urban Prom, but I'm only ever going to be able to judge it from the viewpoint of an elderly Radio 3 listener. What exactly would be the point of that? [And unlike the average professional radio press hack, I don't get paid for my time listening.]

[Beresford]

Does this mean that R3 and other radio stations will be able to return to Freeview in Scotland?

[french frank]

Does this mean that R3 and other radio stations will be able to return to Freeview in Scotland?

Here's some older information - it might be worth enquiring of the BBC.