Will BBC cuts affect our local football coverage ?

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

The following letter in todays Guardian from Rogan Taylor.

 
Patrick Foster is right to point out how vulnerable the social groups are who will be most affected by the proposed cuts to local BBC radio, especially some groups of football fans (Is the BBC killing off its local radio stars?, Media, 12 December).

Over the past two decades, the gentrification of the game at its summit, marked by very steep (and almost continuous) ticket price rises, and monopolised in terms of live TV coverage by pay TV, has led to the "divorce" of two distinct groups from active participation as fans: older men (often retired or made redundant) on low, fixed incomes; and the kids of low-income families. For many of them, local radio commentary is a lifeline.

There appears to be little or no consideration or allowance for these realities, and the people most hurt are often those most heavily buffeted by life's hardships (and most isolated from the networks of power and influence that might protect them). This is deeply unfair; injustice piled upon injustice.

And for those of us who do know something about the way the BBC's "football budget" does get disposed (over-the-top salaries of £1.5m-plus for pundits on Match of the Day; £1m spent securing a studio in Cape Town with a view of Table Mountain etc), it sticks firmly in the craw.

Surely there is a way to express special consideration for the core, dedicated audiences of stations like BBC Radio Merseyside? The audience for BBC local radio has a very high proportion of the poorest licence-payers in the land.

Why should they get it in the neck?
Dr Rogan Taylor
Director, football industry group, school of management, University of Liverpool

Football fans deserve better from the BBC.   http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/16/football-fans-deserve-better-bbc

BBC local radio: has the BBC scored an own goal with its cuts plans?  http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/11/bbc-local-radio-cuts

[KRS]

The best thing BBC could do would be to remove the license fee and implement the advertising model. Some of the decisions on spending including wages are simply ridiculous, so until then I have absolutely no sympathy with the BBC and there are plenty of other free media sources for everyone to get their football coverage. If BBC closed down tomorrow, then I wouldnt be bothered in the slightest and it would mean one less direct debit I'm forced to pay.

edit:
From the BBC, I listen to and watch...

Radio WM (occasionally)
Match of the Day
Top Gear
The Apprentice

...I can live without Radio WM and I'm pretty sure other channels would snap up the other programmes without forcing us to pay to watch them.

[Lizz]

The best thing BBC could do would be to remove the license fee and implement the advertising model. Some of the decisions on spending including wages are simply ridiculous, so until then I have absolutely no sympathy with the BBC and there are plenty of other free media sources for everyone to get their football coverage. If BBC closed down tomorrow, then I wouldnt be bothered in the slightest and it would mean one less direct debit I'm forced to pay.

edit:
From the BBC, I listen to and watch...

Radio WM (occasionally)
Match of the Day
Top Gear
The Apprentice

...I can live without Radio WM and I'm pretty sure other channels would snap up the other programmes without forcing us to pay to watch them.

I've spent the early part of this evening in a pub, and, getting my excuses in early, alcohol free drinks weren't being consumed. I doubt the other media sources are free at all. The BBC isn't perfect, no institution is, but I think it's  better value than Sky. The one programme it should stop wasting money on is Eastenders.

[Pete3206]

It never ceases to amaze me how under appreciated the BBC is. Do people really want another channel like ITV? Wall to wall reality shows, brain numbing talent contests and films broken up with so many adverts and news breaks, they take about three and half hours to sit through. It's worth paying the licence fee (which is cheap IMO) for the 4 main BBC channels. Advert free is the best way to watch TV. 

[Dave Cooper please]

No license fee, no BBC4.

Keep the license fee.

[dave.woodhall]

It never ceases to amaze me how under appreciated the BBC is. Do people really want another channel like ITV? Wall to wall reality shows, brain numbing talent contests and films broken up with so many adverts and news breaks, they take about three and half hours to sit through. It's worth paying the licence fee (which is cheap IMO) for the 4 main BBC channels. Advert free is the best way to watch TV. 

Too many people think that because they don't have to directly pay for ITV it's free. I've even seen a boxing forum where someone's gloating that tonight's fight is free on Sky whereas Boxnation charges £10 a month.

[KRS]

It never ceases to amaze me how under appreciated the BBC is. Do people really want another channel like ITV? Wall to wall reality shows, brain numbing talent contests and films broken up with so many adverts and news breaks, they take about three and half hours to sit through. It's worth paying the licence fee (which is cheap IMO) for the 4 main BBC channels. Advert free is the best way to watch TV. 

The simple answer to that is dont watch the wall to wall reality shows and brain numbing talent contests. If I want to watch a decent film uninterrupted I'll use other resources, and pausing live TV is an easy to use feature to skip advert or news breaks. Granted some of the BBC current affairs programmes and news coverage are much better than others but the means of how they generate income is outdated, restrictive and needs to be overhauled...they wouldnt need to be looking at cutting costs or programmes if they used an alternative income model to that of what is an enforced and limited budget.

[Nev]

It never ceases to amaze me how under appreciated the BBC is. Do people really want another channel like ITV? Wall to wall reality shows, brain numbing talent contests and films broken up with so many adverts and news breaks, they take about three and half hours to sit through. It's worth paying the licence fee (which is cheap IMO) for the 4 main BBC channels. Advert free is the best way to watch TV. 

The simple answer to that is dont watch the wall to wall reality shows and brain numbing talent contests. If I want to watch a decent film uninterrupted I'll use other resources, and pausing live TV is an easy to use feature to skip advert or news breaks. Granted some of the BBC current affairs programmes and news coverage are much better than others but the means of how they generate income is outdated, restrictive and needs to be overhauled...they wouldnt need to be looking at cutting costs or programmes if they used an alternative income model to that of what is an enforced and limited budget.

They are being forced to cut costs by a government with an agenda, witness the change in F1 coverage. And TV is only part of the BBC, the radio side is also excellent and a valuable service to the blind and partially sighted who, of course, don't make a commercial service viable. In this area alone, if you take away the BBC, you are left with the "news" as provided by the likes of Heart and BRMB.

With a very few exceptions, when market forces come into play you will loose impartiality and quality. TV can entertain, but can also educate and inform, without the BBC you will find very little of the latter.

[ChrissyPrice]

BBC4 (where else are you going to find an in-depth documentary on Public Enemy?), 6 Music and a magnificent web site. If this was Murdoch offering the same for £10 a month we'd never hear the last about what a great service was on offer.In addition, the BBC is a positive cultural influence overseas and I for one always have a little burst of national pride when you hear the stories of people in dictatorships tuning into the world service for some reliable news.

[TopDeck113]

The best thing BBC could do would be to remove the license fee and implement the advertising model. Some of the decisions on spending including wages are simply ridiculous, so until then I have absolutely no sympathy with the BBC and there are plenty of other free media sources for everyone to get their football coverage. If BBC closed down tomorrow, then I wouldnt be bothered in the slightest and it would mean one less direct debit I'm forced to pay.

Do you have Sky or one of the other subscription services?

Sure the BBC has its faults, usually as a result of it not being able to be all things to all people all of the time, but the Licence Fee is a modest amount for everything they do deliver, certainly when set against the £40, £50, £60 a month some people pay for Sky.

ITV does occasionally get it spectacularly right - Downton Abbey being the most recent example - but for the most part their output is pants.   Channels 4 (and especially its Freeview offshoots) and 5 have certain merit, but again there's a lot of dross.  As for the rest of Freeview output, unless you want to live on a diet of police chases, Ice Road Truckers, 1001 ways of presenting the history of the Second World War, R&B music videos, shopping channels, 24 hour news, Babe Station and, surprise, surprise, repeats of programmes originally commissioned by the BBC, there is not much to be said for it.

As for the original post, I do think the BBC should think very carefully about how it spends the money it has for coverage of football.  As a supporter of a Premier League club there are more than enough media outlets giving my club exposure.  However, one of the few places that gives lower league clubs a platform is local radio.  Unless we want to see those clubs die, there must be a means by which a follower of, say, Rochdale can keep in touch with their visit to Bournemouth.   BBC Radio Manchester will currently do it for them.     

[Matt Collins]

Whenever I consider the licence fee question, I look at the programmes on ITV and SKY and thank god for the BBC and Channel 4. And when you consider the programmes made for or by those channels (not just shown) I shudder to think what an entirely commercial model would look like.

I wouldn't claim to be an expert, but as far as I can tell there's NBC, which is excellent, and the rest of the models I've seen around the world would make me question the need for a TV at all.