If anything proves the steep decline of the BBC on television then it's this.

Where are the creative minds, with vision and talent grabbing mass audiences....oh yes, all over You Tube instead.

Unsurprisingly the BBC don't seem too keen to report the findings of the National Audit Office about their massive failure and reliance on the work done by the creatives of the past who did once work at the corporation and knew how to make decent watchable shows of all genres.

Andrew Neil's tweet/X - x.com/afneil/status/1859142219275333855?...Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Telegraph article - www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/11/20/...hit-show-five-years/

I guess the BBC loves to waste the taxpayers money on office parties, covering up nonces and keeping The Guardian afloat. I wonder if Paul Thorpe will sue The Guardian for calling him "far right", there is nothing far-fight about Thorpe.

You never hear the term "Alt-Right."

And one of those "creatives of the past" former BBC employee Mike Read has done very well with the Heritage Chart
and Heritage Radio.
And The Footage Detectives he co-hosts on the excellent Talking Pictures TV is very good.

And Boom Radio have done well taking the old Radio 2 audience who didn't like the changes there.

I have a problem with the description "the commercial arm of the BBC".

It gets free money from the pockets of millions. Licence payers are the money tree, for the BBC money literally does grow on trees.

So why have a commercial arm at all? If the BBC wants to be commercial, go and be commercial like everyone else, and work for your existence like everyone else does. They almost have some kind of quasi-hybrid commercial/licence situation going on now, the best of both worlds and yet with all that advantage they still can't knock out a decent new programme and their evening autumn schedules are bereft of worthy content even on the main showpiece channel.

Thursday weekday nights on BBC1 used to be full of watchable stuff, music, science and comedy all before 9pm. Then one off plays and drama later. You only have to pick this week at random in 1984 to see it - genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/service_bbc_one_london/1984-11-22

There is a new series called "Dead and Buried" which will be a massive hit, along with Normal People, Attenborough's Asia, Michael MckinTyres "The Wheel". I'm sure these are all hits. The headline here is misleading.

I enjoy Michael McIntyre, The Wheel is a great show as well as his Big Show
and i love The Hit List too.

There's about the only new BBC shows i rate.

Just a shame that they axed Doctors just as it was nearly 25 years old.
And down to funds, you'd think they'd put the axe on something else
instead rather than something that is popular.

Interesting that's two Midland soaps that were axed after 24 years
Doctors and Crossroads.

They're axeing HARDtalk too. Stephen Sackur's 2011 interview with Paddy Hill of the Birmingham Six was on again recently. Compelling and fascinating. So clearly rubbish that no-one is watching and deserves to go.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0025py8

robbiex wrote:
There is a new series called "Dead and Buried" which will be a massive hit, along with Normal People, Attenborough's Asia, Michael MckinTyres "The Wheel". I'm sure these are all hits. The headline here is misleading.

I don't think many people will argue about David Attenborough, but he's now nearly 100 so not going to be fronting any new content for too much longer one assumes. What will happen then is that the BBC will dine out on his repeat content for many years to come after he leaves us. Who is the new equivalent David Attenborough going forward? But of course Attenborough is a direct link to right back in the great days of innovative television and so holds a somewhat unique place on BBC nowadays.

Nowadays I'd like to know what constitutes the threshold definition for a hit show anyway? The type of content padding out the schedules on BBC1 and BBC2 doesn't lie, it tells the real truth. The less said about the misguided resurrection of BBC3 the better and even BBC4, the only channel I dip into has seen a decline and shows almost no new content anymore. Are they still intent on closure with it in the future?

By sitting back and wallowing in their long past successful content all the BBC are doing is showing themselves up for all they were once good at automatically day in day out and no longer are.

Rich wrote:
robbiex wrote:
There is a new series called "Dead and Buried" which will be a massive hit, along with Normal People, Attenborough's Asia, Michael MckinTyres "The Wheel". I'm sure these are all hits. The headline here is misleading.

I don't think many people will argue about David Attenborough, but he's now nearly 100 so not going to be fronting any new content for too much longer one assumes. What will happen then is that the BBC will dine out on his repeat content for many years to come after he leaves us. Who is the new equivalent David Attenborough going forward? But of course Attenborough is a direct link to right back in the great days of innovative television and so holds a somewhat unique place on BBC nowadays.

Nowadays I'd like to know what constitutes the threshold definition for a hit show anyway? The type of content padding out the schedules on BBC1 and BBC2 doesn't lie, it tells the real truth. The less said about the misguided resurrection of BBC3 the better and even BBC4, the only channel I dip into has seen a decline and shows almost no new content anymore. Are they still intent on closure with it in the future?

By sitting back and wallowing in their long past successful content all the BBC are doing is showing themselves up for all they were once good at automatically day in day out and no longer are.

Traditional broadcast TV is becoming a dead medium. Even Disney might be shutting down ABC in America, CNN are pretty much toast and rightly so.

Haven't they outsourced so much of their production?.

So many creatives now have so much opportunity and more funding from the numerous Netflix style broadcasters.

Maybe every story in the world has been told already.

Rich wrote:
Who is the new equivalent David Attenborough going forward?
The only person to come close that I can think of is Chris Packham. But he's already 63, so may not be guaranteed to carry on working for much longer.

Green Man is correct about schedules.

Just to use the BBC, none of their schedules are of any interest to me now, either on TV or radio. There is nothing they broadcast that is appointment to view or listen to. Anything that does interest me I will watch in my own time and at my owm pleasure, either through the iPlayer or BBC Sounds for radio, which is what I use most actually. I find listening to radio shows at a time of my choice even more convenient than TV actually.

In the days ahead the BBC and ITV will doubtless make a song and dance about their upcoming Christmas schedule, as if it's some jewel in the crown of the year's TV offerings. It won't be, it's not and nobody gives a damn anymore. They even spoil the King's/Queen's speech by trailing what was said beforehand in bulletins, not that there is much substance to any of them. If you're looking for anything fresh and exciting on BBC or ITV this Christmas you can forget it, it ain't happening. Hours filled with CGI childrens films for a couple of weeks, thicko not-really-a-celebrity Mastermind that would make Magnus blush and extra festive pre-record Strictly that is like being given yet more helpings of a big meal you've already had seconds and thirds of and are bloated by.

I'm currently trying to impress on a family member that missing something is no big deal anymore because they haven't missed it and don't need to arrange their life around TV schedules anymore. Unlike years ago you can now go on holiday for a fortnight, or even a month and come back and not miss a thing that you regularly watch or liked the look of. Not that there's much to miss in my opinion.

The best way to treat scheduled TV nowadays is with the off button and ignore it.

My TV is not connected to anything apart from a Blu-Ray player that has been off for months. I have very few films and TV on home media.

I can get all the news on Youtube and Rumble, movies are free on Youtube or Archive.org which are to my tastes.

I was in the supermarket and 2 mad biddies, were talking about their favourite reality shows and game shows.

When people ask me if have I seen so-so on TV or Netflix, I say no, or if people mention sports I just switch off.

I remember when Christmas TV was very well thought out and catered for the masses. Not just throwing mud on the wall and seeing what sticks. There was very game shows and reality shows over Christmas.

In the early 1990s, I went on a camping trip, there there was a TV room. Everyone sat huddled around a TV that was about 24 inches TV watching Taggart, parents gave their kids lots of pocket money that night.

Rich wrote:
Green Man is correct about schedules.

Just to use the BBC, none of their schedules are of any interest to me now, either on TV or radio. There is nothing they broadcast that is appointment to view or listen to. Anything that does interest me I will watch in my own time and at my owm pleasure, either through the iPlayer or BBC Sounds for radio, which is what I use most actually. I find listening to radio shows at a time of my choice even more convenient than TV actually.

In the days ahead the BBC and ITV will doubtless make a song and dance about their upcoming Christmas schedule, as if it's some jewel in the crown of the year's TV offerings. It won't be, it's not and nobody gives a damn anymore. They even spoil the King's/Queen's speech by trailing what was said beforehand in bulletins, not that there is much substance to any of them. If you're looking for anything fresh and exciting on BBC or ITV this Christmas you can forget it, it ain't happening. Hours filled with CGI childrens films for a couple of weeks, thicko not-really-a-celebrity Mastermind that would make Magnus blush and extra festive pre-record Strictly that is like being given yet more helpings of a big meal you've already had seconds and thirds of and are bloated by.

I'm currently trying to impress on a family member that missing something is no big deal anymore because they haven't missed it and don't need to arrange their life around TV schedules anymore. Unlike years ago you can now go on holiday for a fortnight, or even a month and come back and not miss a thing that you regularly watch or liked the look of. Not that there's much to miss in my opinion.

The best way to treat scheduled TV nowadays is with the off button and ignore it.

I accept that linera broadcast tv is not as important as it once was, however it is still pretty important Something like 60% of all tv is watched as broadcast. I imagine that this is mostly news, sports events, and reality shows which are all best watched live. I still think that there is something about watching something that is live. I much prefer Saturday kitchen when it is live, or sounds of the 60s when it is live. There is the sense that there is direct communication or that something could go wrong that you don't want to miss.

I still thing there is a big place for the freeview broadcasters BBC, itv channel 5 and channel 5. I think Netflix and Prime are overrated. I thought Succession was boring, Game of Thrones is for kids (dragons aren't real), and The Flight attendant was silly, and Shitz creek was actually sh*t. I'm happy to be a freeview only person and I don't feel as though I'm missing anything.

The FTA broadcasters don't bid for sports rights unlike in the States. Freeview has new channels launching but they close down very shortly.

David Cameron wanted more sports to be FTA after the Olympics. A few years ago, there was Freesports, the first and only FTA-dedicated sports channel, which shut down after a few years. People who are in charge of digital sports and culture are only interested in 5G towers. ITV did have a decent stable of sports about 2014 or so. The pubs always showed cricket or boxing. Boxing on ITV was great.

I don't listen to any live radio, due to my location it's community radio or static. When I am driving I still take CDs.

Your Netflix point Robbie matches my own experience. I was able to view it for a period through a family member doing the password sharing option, until they closed that route. Was I bothered? Not one bit. In the couple of years I'd had it available to watch the only thing I actually watched on it was old episodes of Mr Bean from the 1990s and nothing else at all.

On Freeview, I read a couple of weeks ago that there are now doubts about its medium to long term viability and that it could be shelved at some point. That would clearly be bad news for a lot of people.

One thing about the BBC that disappoints with such a vast historical programme archive is that they don't place far more of it on their iPlayer online. The Dr.Who archive of every available episode from the first seven doctors 1963 to 1989 that landed there this time last year proves it can be done, and I'd imagine it has proved quite successful.

Freeview has a good 5 years or so before the signals close for 5G. There are numerous ways to watch TV via broadband like Roku, Firesticks or Kodi boxes but I have not seen the latter for years.

I wonder if Freesat will replace Freeview nationally, then you still have to a find landlord who is not a twat about dishes. Where I live Freeview is very unstable hence another reason why I don't watch TV.

I don't like subscribing to TV, I have spent way too much in the past on that even when I owned a pub. You do need a commercial subscription which soon adds up throughout the year.

I also needed a PRS licence which was £400 a year. I knew a few landlords who tried to find little illegal loopholes but the landlords were soon fined when they didn't have proper subscriptions for SKY TV. It's just another tax.

I did hire a Blues Brother tribute act, but they had to stop it because they were threatened with legal action from the John Belushi estate.

Wolf Hall is the best TV in years.

Watching broadcast tv via firesticks or now tv is a pain, you have to go in and out of apps such as iplayer, my5, and itvx etc, and other channels like Aljazeera, together, gbnews etc are not available, along with dozens of other channels.