Proms 2013 - the Verdict.

[teamsaint]

License fee may be frozen, but income from it is rising........

[Flosshilde]

a vacuous sound-bite from a performer instead. The crassest example of this being those back-stage interval chats.

What could be called 'Metitis'

[agingjb]

Is it fair to deduce the attitude of the BBC to the Proms from the time that each Prom remains available on iPlayer?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

License fee may be frozen, but income from it is rising........

In the sense of "salaries", sadly true.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is it fair to deduce the attitude of the BBC to the Proms from the time that each Prom remains available on iPlayer?

Not really - the Beeb has some kind of contract with somebody that prevents them from making any Music broadcasts available on the i-Player for more than a week. Damned annoying, but not restricted to the Proms broadcasts.

[RobertLeDiable]

Not really - the Beeb has some kind of contract with somebody that prevents them from making any Music broadcasts available on the i-Player for more than a week. Damned annoying, but not restricted to the Proms broadcasts.

It's the union agreement, with the Musicians' Union and the Incorporated Society of Musicians, I believe. It's true of most non-music programmes as well, though, so there must be other unions involved.

[Vile Consort]

Didn't some high-profile orchestras refuse to play at the proms because of the concert being available on the Internet for a week every time it is broadcast? Is this still the case?

[RobertLeDiable]

The first few years under Roger Wright's control were mostly very good, or even outstanding, but then a lot of those would have been planned by Nicholas Kenyon.

Am I right in thinking that there was a comparative dearth in top rank visiting orchestras? If so, is it due to the expense (for the orchestras) of complying with the current visa controls, RW cutting back the costs or some other reason?

(Roger Wright seems to be extending his R3 philosophy to the Proms.)

Unlikely that more than one season would have been organised by Kenyon after he left except maybe for a few foreign orchestras. I wouldn't have thought there was a great dearth of top foreign orchestras, but maybe that depends how you define 'top rank'. Don't forget that the Berlin Staatskapelle, which definitely is top rank, did four nights in the Ring. As for cuts: the BBC is cutting across the board corporately, because of the freezing of the licence fee. Any cuts made by RW will have been handed down in percentage terms by his bosses and he'll just have to make the best of them.

[agingjb]

Do these artists and their shop stewards really not think that sufficiently clever people (not me) can't capture their broadcasts as they are put out. It might be a good argument against radio.

Anyway, if public money is spent on securing performances, then those performances (not aways wonderful and the best of their kind in fact) should be in the public domain. Yes, I know they aren't going to be.

[Vile Consort]

Anyway, if public money is spent on securing performances, then those performances (not aways wonderful and the best of their kind in fact) should be in the public domain. Yes, I know they aren't going to be.

That would ensure nobody would ever perform for the BBC!

[agingjb]

That would ensure nobody would ever perform for the BBC!

We pay them. They get the exposure and publicity. What more do they want?

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

with the Oslo PO/Petrenko not far behind

I'd agree.

David Mellor in today's Mail on Sunday described the Oslo Phil as 'provincial'. Silly tit.

[Barbirollians]

C+ - not a vintage year IMO .

[Ferretfancy]

In real terms, the Proms are a real bargain for the BBC. For about £4-5m they can produce something like200 hours of radio, not counting later repeats, plus the TV coverage. Two or three people chatting in a TV studio with a few clips thrown in would cost out at about £60k' an hour, that's why daytime TV is seen to be a cheap way of filling time. Most people have little idea of how costly television and radio production is.

[french frank]

In real terms, the Proms are a real bargain for the BBC. For about £4-5m they can produce something like200 hours of radio, not counting later repeats, plus the TV coverage. Two or three people chatting in a TV studio with a few clips thrown in would cost out at about £60k' an hour, that's why daytime TV is seen to be a cheap way of filling time. Most people have little idea of how costly television and radio production is.

True. Someone worked out the average cost per concert compared with the cost of filling the same amount of TV time with something else. The fly in the ointment for the TV managers is that the Proms don't bring in as big an audience as 'something else'.