Ask HN: Is the BBC Dying? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is the BBC Dying?

2 pointstrifit7 comments

It harks back to time when politicians thought they were there to do something valuable for ordinary people. So last century! Like the NHS it's days are numbered.

Maybe.

Not for housewives

Yes.

No.

Yes... It has moved away from founding principles, only reflects a cosmopolitan city elite's understanding of the country, moved to more, lower value, content on more channels, become significantly politicised and is a classic example of a comfortable organisation "spending other people's money".

The BBC in the mid 90's to early 00's was absolutely amazing. Add in Channel 4 as well and despite having Sky, 90%+ of content I watched was on BBC2 and Channel 4.

BBC Three doesn't belong as a channel on Freeview because it's target audience watches via different means anyway.

BBC Four belongs on Freeview because its aging audience watches Freeview as it's primary means.

It's content hits are now far more infrequent too - too many serious cop dramas and other dramas from the same small pool of writers/producers that they like and have had previous success.

It's tragic but it's just poor value now too.

It needs a boss who pushes out the political influence and focus, realises that the people of Islington aren't representative of the vast majority of the country, and recognises they aren't in competition with Netflix, they're in competition with the previous version of themselves.

The BBC is one of the few news and content outlets that survived the Great Cataclysm that destroyed British journalism and turned The Telegraph and The Times in tabloids that publish articles about Theresa May being sexy or BP conspiring to bring immigrants to the UK (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/09/24/bp-sparked-f...). Many BBC shows are still watched and sold everywhere in the world.

> the people of Islington

For the non-British reader, the person of Islington is a negative stereotypical character often used by right wing media. It is supposedly a rich hypocritical leftist that is out of touch with the hard-working person of Britain, another stereotype. Its use became more frequent when Jeremy Corbyn, who lives in Islington, became the leader of the Labour party.

Some recent examples:

Here the journalist is getting upset because, allegedly, a person of Islington thinks violating the European Convention on Human Rights is wrong:

> https://www.gbnews.uk/gb-views/rwanda-immigration-plan-is-fi...

> And now we’ve got a country that is desperate to get to grips with illegal immigration but a few people from Islington think this is a terrible idea, we don’t do it.

Here the journalist is upset because, allegedly, the person of Islington would not fight to defend the UK if it is invaded by Russia:

> https://www.gbnews.uk/gb-views/patrick-christys-the-younger-...

> I think we’d end up relying of the fair people of Carlisle and Leeds, while the Islington snobberati packed up their herbal tea and legged it to their second homes in Provence.

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