The guy who beat me in the General Election, Jeremy Hunt, is now Minister for Culture, Media and Sport. I will resist pointing out his various gaffes since taking on the role (am I bitter? never). Heh he has to have the best job in government with all those invites to sport and cultural events and overseeing the London Olympics. Good luck to him!
Hunt Attacks the BBC Again
But I do take issue with his approach to the beloved Beeb. He has just been on telly talking about the need for the BBC to show discipline, amid dark warnings of cuts in the Licence Fee. But I have not had a satisfactory answer to my letter to him last year, in which I raised serious questions about his approach. When will we see a fair approach to Sky and News International who have such powerful control over sport on screen? I was shocked to find out that it seems impossible to obtain live sport for a youth cafe I am involved in setting up, unless we go with Sky. Monopoly? Well, we’re still looking for an alternative provider. Residential users can find an alternative but when BT offered Sky Sports channels at a knock-down price recently this is what happened.
We need great British Telly
I also think Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC, has a point in his speech this week when he challenged Sky over its poor investment in original British material, something you could never accuse the BBC of. Thompson said, Sky spends just £100m a year on original UK content, less even than Channel Five, “despite the fact that Sky’s total turnover is more than 15 times that of Five’s.” Apparently Sky’s marketing budget is the same as ITV1′s entire programme budget.
It terms of content we all know that the BBC produces and delivers quality most of the time. Sky put on a lot of great sport but if you buy the rights to live sport it’s easy to deliver great viewing figures. You have not had to produce the core product – you’re just a slick sales operation. And for those of us who don’t pay the high subscriptions to access Sky Sports which give them such whopping profits, well we have to make do with watching footie in the pub (better atmosphere anyway).
Sky treated with kid gloves?
Sky and News International are way too powerful in my view and they are growing aggressively. So why do Sky seem to be treated with kid gloves by Jeremy Hunt? You can read about how Cameron cosied up to Murdoch here. Let’s see the coalition adopting a balanced and fair approach to all media organisations please Jeremy! And that has to start with a change in the rhetoric and less BBC bashing.
The BBC is a unique and wonderful institution and the pride of Britain – that doesn’t mean it’s perfect.
http://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/a-bbc-preservation-order/
I think it’s a paramount importance that the BBC be protected. I also agree with some of the proposals that have been thrown around (I think Tessa Jowell had a part in it) about turning the BBC into a public co-operative.
As for sport; well I think exclusive licensing should be abolished.