Date: 06 May 1997 17:38:00 +0100 From: Paul Richards <p.richards@elsevier.co.uk> To: Iain Templeton <iaint@CU-SeeMe.educ.utas.edu.au> Cc: Sean Eric Fagan <sef@Kithrup.COM>, chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: And now for something completely different Message-ID: <57rafkr1xz.fsf@tees.elsevier.co.uk> In-Reply-To: Iain Templeton's message of Tue, 6 May 1997 10:03:28 %2B1000 (EST) References: <Pine.BSF.3.95q.970506095306.8501A-100000@CU-SeeMe.educ.utas.edu.au>
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Iain Templeton <iaint@CU-SeeMe.educ.utas.edu.au> writes: > On Mon, 5 May 1997, Sean Eric Fagan wrote: > > > For anyone in britain: Ch. 4 (whatever that is) is going to be doing > > animated versions of two Terry Pratchett books (_Wyrd Sisters_ > > and _Soul Musc_). > > > BBC Channel 4, its the ah, same channel who show other things like "Drop > The Dead Donkey" (no idea if you get the over there either). I guess > someone in the UK could give a breakdown of what all the BBC channels do, > but I think 4 might be the more "alternative" - the do doco's and comedy > etc...of course I could be completely wrong. Umm, Channel 4 isn't in any way related to the BBC. A brief, and not essentially completely accurate, description of the UK TV scene follows. There is the British Broadcasting Corporation, which is a govt financed broadcaster (although I think these days it gets extra revenue from commercial sponsorship although there are controls over what it can and can't do to raise money). All owners of receiving equipment in the UK are required to hold a TV license, the money from which is supposed to be used to finance (partially) the BBC. The BBC has two channels, BBC 1 and BBC 2. There is also a commercial network which is under the umbrella name of ITV (Independant TV). It is made up of a whole number of regional broadcasting companies who work together to support a national channel but with some regional programming. These companies are granted franchises from the govt to broadcast (every 5 years I think) and they are financed entirely from advertising. There's for some reason a separate franchise for early morning broadcasting i.e. before 9 a.m. For many years there were just these 3 channels. Then (about 10-15 years ago now I think, time passes quickly :-)) the govt decided it was going to issue another franchise for a fourth channel that was largely to be financed from advertising but I think has been receiving a subsidy from the govt as well. It was given the really imaginative name of "Channel 4" and yes, it does produce more "alternative" programming. At the same time they created a Welsh channel 4 which shares many programs with Channel 4 but also produces some Welsh language programming (you won't get a very polite reply from me if you ask what Welsh is but as a clue, the UK is not synonymous with England despite what some US citizens may think or for that matter some English). Just to keep you up to date. Last month another channel was launched called, "Channel 5" which is also an advertising financed channel. After 18 years of Conservative govt. the trend has very much been away from govt. financed broadcasting so all new channels are franchised to companies, even the BBC has faced considerable change with much more emphasis on program sponsorship (but it doesn't have advertising slots like the commercial stations or US stations, it has very low key program sponsorship, you'll get a little message on the weather bulletins for instance saying that the bulletin is sponsored by some company or other). The amount of money being granted to the BBC has I think been in steady decline. A fairly obvious indication is the number of major sporting events that it has lost the contracts for, either to the commercial stations or the satellite stations. -- Dr Paul Richards. [p.richards@elsevier.co.uk] Originative Solutions Ltd. [paul@originat.demon.co.uk] Phone: 0370 462071 (Mobile), +44 (0)1865 843155 (Elsevier)
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