Proms 2022

[LHC]

Does anyone know how the BBC decide which Proms to televise (1st and last nights apart, obv)? I`m not going down the "why isn`t the Prom on xxx being televised" road - genuinely interested in how.

Judging from the last few years the starting point for agreeing the TV schedule each year is first and last night, then all the pop music and non classical proms (these usually have the double benefit of not featuring any classical music, and as most are late night concerts, they are shorter than the standard concerts and leave more space for cooking shows or reruns of Top of the Pops).

If there is any space left in the schedules after that, there are certain ensembles and conductors that are usually featured - National Youth Orchestra, John Wilson, West Eastern Divan Orchestra with Barenboim, or more recently Chineke, Nicola Benedetti, Simon Rattle etc. Essentially they are looking for performers who are recognised names for the TV audience, or performers and/or programmes that can be seen to promote diversity.

The big international orchestras used to be included in the TV schedules, but I wonder if the advent of things like the BPO's Digital Concert Hall has made this more difficult to negotiate; very few are featured this year and neither of the Berlin Phil's concerts are being shown on TV.

For some reason, Glyndebourne's visits to the Proms are never televised, even though a semi-staged opera would seem ideal for TV. Perhaps Glyndebourne forbid this as part of their agreement to perform.

Interestingly, the number of proms being televised has been cut back considerably this year, even though there is a full schedule of concerts for the first time for a few years. Before the pandemic proms were shown regularly on BBC4, usually on a Thursday, Friday and Sunday each week. In 2014 for example, 28 proms were broadcast on TV, and the magazine programme 'Proms Extra' was shown every Saturday night on BBC2 during the season.

This year there are just 22 proms being shown (I suspect this was originally going to be 21, but the Ukrainian Orchestra was hastily included for TV when it was added to the Proms programme). This will have reduced the options for including anything but the standard fare chosen by the BBC algorithms noted above.

[hmvman]

...Interestingly, the number of proms being televised has been cut back considerably this year, even though there is a full schedule of concerts for the first time for a few years. Before the pandemic proms were shown regularly on BBC4, usually on a Thursday, Friday and Sunday each week. In 2014 for example, 28 proms were broadcast on TV, and the magazine programme 'Proms Extra' was shown every Saturday night on BBC2 during the season.

This year there are just 22 proms being shown (I suspect this was originally going to be 21, but the Ukrainian Orchestra was hastily included for TV when it was added to the Proms programme). This will have reduced the options for including anything but the standard fare chosen by the BBC algorithms noted above.

I wonder what the implications will be for proms televising when BBC 4 moves to online only.

[PhilipT]

For some reason, Glyndebourne's visits to the Proms are never televised, even though a semi-staged opera would seem ideal for TV. Perhaps Glyndebourne forbid this as part of their agreement to perform.

Some Glyndebourne Festival performances are streamed to cinemas, so there's revenue to protect. The new house at Glyndebourne was designed with TV cameras in mind, unlike the RAH. Snippets of the Glyndebourne Prom of "Le Comte Ory" in 1997 were broadcast as part of the Modern Times documentary.

[Petrushka]

Does anyone know how the BBC decide which Proms to televise (1st and last nights apart, obv)? I`m not going down the "why isn`t the Prom on xxx being televised" road - genuinely interested in how.

I remember reading somewhere at one time that deciding which Proms to televise was usually down to the availability of cameras during a summer of sport, when, needless to say, it was sport that took the priority and everything else including the Proms picked up the crumbs.

Not sure whether this still holds true.

[LHC]

I wonder what the implications will be for proms televising when BBC 4 moves to online only.

If they were to switch to a relatively simple camera set up, such as those used by Wigmore Hall and various orchestras for their live streams on YouTube, without the need to find space in the TV schedule theoretically they could show far more than at present, however, I suspect the opposite may be well turn out to be the case, with very few making it onto the IPlayer.

Indeed, given Tim Davie's recent suggestion that the BBC orchestras will have to look for “alternative sources of income where possible.” the prospects for classical music on the BBC don't look good.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I wonder what the implications will be for proms televising when BBC 4 moves to online only.

I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for that .

[Ein Heldenleben]

I remember reading somewhere at one time that deciding which Proms to televise was usually down to the availability of cameras during a summer of sport, when, needless to say, it was sport that took the priority and everything else including the Proms picked up the crumbs.

Not sure whether this still holds true.

That might have been true a few decades back but I would be surprised if that’s true now- there’s been such an expansion in outside broadcast provision as a consequence of televised footy - though one major provider went spectacularly (and almost certainly criminally ) bust a few months ago.
The real constraint is cost. Multi camera outside broadcasts are quite expensive - not as expensive as drama- but much more expensive than most filmed documentary. Just one example : the powerful lenses used in sport and on at least a few of the cameras in music coverage cost between £80,000 to 250,000 . The day hire rates for those must my eye watering. There’s been quite a bit of cost reduction in sport with the large outside broadcast vehicles now sometimes replaced by remote control rooms that direct the cameras using the internet or even 5G . I suspect there are still OB vehicles parked outside the Albert Hall and those , together with the crew cost a lot of money.
I think Sky are now paying 9.3 million pounds per footy match in rights fees so for them £250,000 in tv coverage costs is chicken feed. But one consequence is that the price is probably higher than it would be without all that sports business kicking around. So in a roundabout way your point is right - on the other hand they (and BT ) could be driving the costs down as much as possible. I think there’s an CMA investigation into how much they pay for outside broadcast work so it’ll be interesting to see the outcome - for those that take an interest in these arcane matters

[hmvman]

I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for that .

Well, I posted my comment with a degree of tongue in cheek. My expectations are low but I'll be very happy to be proved wrong!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Well, I posted my comment with a degree of tongue in cheek. My expectations are low but I'll be very happy to be proved wrong!

No sorry I shouldn’t been so opaque . I don’t think BBC Four will go online only . That is the mood music I’m hearing from my admittedly now rather tenuous connections with these things. So confusingly I could be completely wrong.
The feeling is that having reversed ferret over BBC 3 and reinstated the broadcast channel why do the same with BBC Four? - particularly given the fact that its audience is possibly less tech savvy. I can only get SD BBC Four so I often watch in iPlayer to get better quality . I see now though that the BBC Four HD is promising to return in the sort of message you get at the end of James Bond Films.
License to thrill?

[LHC]

No sorry I shouldn’t been so opaque . I don’t think BBC Four will go online only . That is the mood music I’m hearing from my admittedly now rather tenuous connections with these things. So confusingly I could be completely wrong.
The feeling is that having reversed ferret over BBC 3 and reinstated the broadcast channel why do the same with BBC Four? - particularly given the fact that its audience is possibly less tech savvy. I can only get SD BBC Four so I often watch in iPlayer to get better quality . I see now though that the BBC Four HD is promising to return in the sort of message you get at the end of James Bond Films.
License to thrill?

BBC FOUR HD has been unavailable on Freeview for a month now, with no indication yet of what the BBC means by returning ‘soon’. I realise that it’s removal was not the fault of the BBC (lots of Freeview HD Channels were removed to provide EE with more 5G capacity), but the BBC initially stated that it would be reinstated immediately. It was only a few days before the HD channel was removed that it announce that rather than moving to a new channel, it would instead only return at an unspecified date sometime in the future.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

No sorry I shouldn’t been so opaque . I don’t think BBC Four will go online only . That is the mood music I’m hearing from my admittedly now rather tenuous connections with these things. So confusingly I could be completely wrong.
The feeling is that having reversed ferret over BBC 3 and reinstated the broadcast channel why do the same with BBC Four? - particularly given the fact that its audience is possibly less tech savvy. I can only get SD BBC Four so I often watch in iPlayer to get better quality . I see now though that the BBC Four HD is promising to return in the sort of message you get at the end of James Bond Films.
License to thrill?

No Time to Die.

[hmvman]

No sorry I shouldn’t been so opaque . I don’t think BBC Four will go online only . That is the mood music I’m hearing from my admittedly now rather tenuous connections with these things. So confusingly I could be completely wrong.
The feeling is that having reversed ferret over BBC 3 and reinstated the broadcast channel why do the same with BBC Four? - particularly given the fact that its audience is possibly less tech savvy. I can only get SD BBC Four so I often watch in iPlayer to get better quality . I see now though that the BBC Four HD is promising to return in the sort of message you get at the end of James Bond Films.
License to thrill?

Thanks for the clarification, EH. I shall await and watch with interest, but with breath unheld!

[Pulcinella]

I hope Alpie sees this, as it's a message to thank him not only for his individual concert postings but also for his often very witty subsequent post as he launches each thread.

[hmvman]

I hope Alpie sees this, as it's a message to thank him not only for his individual concert postings but also for his often very witty subsequent post as he launches each thread.

I'll drink to that...

[french frank]

There have been a few posts here about particular concerts - rather than on the dedicated threads for those concerts. If the thread doesn't appear yet in the What's New? view, go to the forum homepage and select the Concerts 2022 board - a subforum of the main Proms 2022 board. All imminent/past concerts should be visible there. I think Alpie releases and bumps each one about a week before the Prom takes place. This is to avoid the forum being swamped with Proms threads.