March 2022
Back in the day, in my opinion, the BBC was the last bastion of quality, truth and accuracy.
“Auntie” was always where my parents turned to for good, wholesome entertainment, “proper” news and for learning what tomorrow's weather was going to be. And, this same blind trust became embedded in me from childhood to adulthood to middle age.
There was a minor glitch in the matrix in the early 70’s when, during an episode of Doctor Who, I noticed an army tank that was, even to my young, trusting eyes, clearly superimposed and bore a startling resemblance to the plastic Action Man Scorpion Tank I had just had for Christmas. But I quickly suppressed any negative thoughts and returned to blissful trust. And, I am also ignoring the 1987 “Don’t worry if you’re watching this, there isn’t” Michael Fish "no hurricane forecast…"
And, so it was for many decades until, probably about 10 years ago while scanning through my daily dose of the BBC News app, a headline struck me as a bit odd. Instead of summarising the news events in the paragraph below, the headline finished with a question mark. It was asking me a question.
I can’t remember the actual headline question, but it was something like: “Could social media be bad for your children?” And I thought, why are you asking me? I don’t bloody know. I come to you for this type of information - you should be telling me whether it is or isn’t bad.
Over time, I noticed the BBC News sites adopt this strategy of turning headlines into questions on a frequent basis. I think it has become the norm now. I presume this is due to instructions from the corporate legal-beagles. Rather than expressing an opinion, or making a recommendation that a litigious reader could challenge, they now just ask a question and provide a series of comments which the reader has to evaluate and form their own opinion or conclusion, thereby leaving Auntie Beeb free of all responsibility and liability.
And, for me, this is where the Beeb’s circle-of-trust began to crumble. For me, this is where the BBC News site and App started a race to the bottom with other news organisations. “24 Hour News” became a thing and if there aren’t 24 hours of actual news then it has to be filled with analysis, comment, opinion, supposition and if all else fails, sheer guesswork. And I lost all trust and moved away from the BBC for my News content.
It wasn’t long before my BBC Weather App went the same way and was deleted. In 2016, after 94 years of service, The Meteorological Office was replaced by a foreign, private weather forecasting company to provide the Beeb’s weather forecasts. Pah! It’s tough enough for Brits to forecast their own bloody weather, how on earth can Johnny Foreigner do it?!
And then, along came “Diversity and Inclusivity”. While this is a good thing, what tends to happen in large corporations (in my limited experience), is that their response to new Human Resources challenges tends to err on the side of over-reacting rather than risking under-reacting. The result being, that the middle-aged, white, heterosexual, male TV presenter has gone from ubiquity to obscurity in less than a decade. I used to think that the BBC mockumentary parodying themselves, “W1A”, was very funny but a somewhat over-the-top caricature. Now, I suspect it’s far closer to what actually happens than the Beeb would like to admit. I can just envisage an episode of W1A where a meeting is taking place in “Frankie Howerd” discussing prospective new presenters…
“So, what we are looking for is a gay, female, person of colour. Preferably disabled and with a regional accent. Ideally, all of the above. Yes, but isn’t this is a children’s TV presenter role? Ah, yes Ophelia, very good point. So, they really could do with having a speech impediment, too…”
The BBC’s future, I presume, lies in the iPlayer platform competing successfully with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney, etc. However, unlike some of these other content providers, the Beeb has a significant amount of radio content that it needs to deliver and it looks to me like they intend to wrap this all up in their “Sounds” app.
An example of this strategy struck me last week when listening to the latest “Friday Night Comedy” podcast. The show was preceded by an announcement detailing how the show’s availability was shortly going to change. In future, the Friday Night Comedy would be available via the BBC Sounds app an amazing whole twenty eight days before anywhere else! This is the worst bit of marketing “spin” I’ve heard in a long time. Currently, the podcast is available on most podcast platforms shortly after the show is broadcast on a Friday night.
So, what the Beeb actually means is that you can listen to Friday Night Comedy in the same timeframe as normal on BBC Sounds - but they will withhold the podcast’s availability for every other platform for a full month. To me, this is a risky strategy. What Auntie is saying is that if you want to listen to our content when it’s still fresh, you’ll have to access it through our proprietary podcast app. However, BBC Sounds only has BBC-created content on it. So, content consumers will have to run two separate platforms - one for fresh BBC content and a generic platform for all their other favourite podcasts. Or, they could wait a month. I'll probably wait...
“Auntie” is at a crossroads in my opinion…
Firstly, she is facing stiff competition from the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video which, at the time of writing, both charge less than £10/month for their service. To watch anything on the BBC (and any other programme live-streamed from other providers on an online TV) you need to have a TV licence currently costing £159 per year which works out at a not very competitive £13.25 per month.
Secondly, it’s my understanding that the BBC viewer profile is an ageing one. When talking with my millennial offspring and I recommend a programme on the Beeb they invariably answer: “Erm, is that on that iPlayer thingy? Hmmm, okay, I think we’ve still got that app, somewhere." Basically, if it’s not on Netflix, Amazon or Spotify, it’s an uphill conversation.
I am not sure how long the justification for the BBC licence can be sustained, particularly for younger viewers and just how many new, younger viewers are actually watching Beeb content? I’m fascinated to see which way the Beeb goes.
It’s always sad to lose one of one’s relatives and even more so when it’s an Auntie.