Comments on: Report From London: Channels

By: Christine Becker

Christine Becker — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:15:00 +0000

Thanks for this addition, Matthew. I’m in Dublin this weekend and was thinking about local broadcasting issues in relation to UK (not just English) TV. If I had more time to spend here, I’d love to investigate that firsthand more fully.

By: Matthew Kilburn

Matthew Kilburn — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 01:04:25 +0000

It’s worth mentioning S4C as well, which in the analogue terrestrial set-up broadcasts to Wales on the part of the spectrum elsewhere allocated to Channel Four. This is the Welsh Fourth Channel, initially consisting of Welsh-language programmes in primetime provided by the BBC and (back in 1982 when the channel started) the ITV contractor for Wales, which was HTV, with English-language programmes from Channel Four pushed to mornings, afternoons and late evenings. Multichannel plaforms allow Channel Four to broadcast in Wales as well, and changes including the 1990 Broadcasting Act and the consolidation of ITV have led to S4C being weakened; but there are other more authoritative voices who will hopefully reveal themselves.

By: Christine Becker

Christine Becker — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:22:47 +0000

Great question, Bill. My sense is that there’s a significant degree of sincerity, although there’s no question that everything the channel execs publicly say has a calculated purpose. But both ITV and C4 have struggled from declining ad revenue in recent years, with the bad economy especially hurting, and that has made Ofcom lighten some of their public service mandates (and 5 barely has any mandate — it was founded in the late 1990s basically just to generate ad revenue — but it’s also is pretty irrelevant to most British viewers, I gather). It also appears that compared to the US nets, the British public service channels have to be more open about reporting on their revenue and activities (the BBC especially, obviously, because it’s using public money), so I think it would be harder for them to fudge their claims. That said, I would assume there’s a certain amount of overstating going on; when you read their required annual reports, they pour things on pretty thick, especially in claiming that they’re living up to their mandates. (You can see C4’s report on 2010 in fun interactive form here: http://bit.ly/lMHzpa.)

By: Bill Kirkpatrick

Bill Kirkpatrick — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 17:23:10 +0000

Thanks for the terrific overview; this is very helpful. One quick question: when the commercial terrestrial stations like Channel 4 warn about having to cut public service programming, do you know whether their financial situation really is that dire? If a U.S. commercial station said something like that, I would be immediately skeptical: chances are they just want to add a percentage point or two to their already healthy profit margins. How sincere are the British broadcasters?