The BBC

This is the first time in the BBC's history that we are proposing to close a television channel. I can’t rule out it being the last change to our programmes or services.

this reads a little bit like "oh we hadn't noticed any dramatic changes in the production and reception of TV in the last 5 years"

Surely they should've put some of that money into making comedy?

or something funny at least

why start now?

Why Not?

Like, the Reggie Yates SA doc really SHOULD be on BBC One.

This is the point really, if the programmes are good enough they can go on BBC1 or BBC2, perhaps they could find some room by maybe dropping one of their 5000 antiques shows / property shows / cooking shows / progammes about benefits scroungers or whatever. BBC4 meanwhile is a repository for exactly the sort of programmes that used to be shown on BBC2 but have since been replaced by 5000 antiques shows / property shows /cooking shows / progammes about benefits scroungers or whatever.

As a political comedy show that dares to challenge authority, my TV show, The Revolution Will Be Televised, would never have been successful without BBC 3 giving me a platform. Now the BBC are looking to shut the channel down. We can’t let this happen to the only channel that nurtures challenging, cutting edge British comedy.

BBC 3 is the birthplace of comedy careers like Jack Whitehall, Russell Howard, David Walliams and Matt Lucas. It is the platform for voices that aren’t being heard, that go against the grain and don’t fit in with the status quo. That’s why Jono started his petition to save BBC3, because as a fan he knows that platforms like this are sacred. And that’s why me and other comedians like Jack Whitehall, Rick Edwards and Russell Kane have signed.

^ best argument for abolition of BBC3 lol amirite

matt lucas started out on bbc2 right?

pls to abolish bbc2 also

4 channels and they couldn't even find room for Limmy. Fuck 'em imo

I like some the trashy documentary series on BBC3. Whenever I watch "Sun Sex & Suspicious Parents" it just puts me in the mood for a night out.

I am still bewildered by "Snog Marry Avoid" though - why are we all pretending that it's a robot, a talking robot, giving a makeover?

dog borstal

Think lucas started on paramount comedy channel rip gawd bless ya

lucas drummer for vic reeves

would imagine that russell howard's talent would have brought him right to the top no matter the route taken tbf

DOG BORSTAL

But we're talking about a demographic that will, by and large, happily shift online with the channel anyway.

75% of 16- to 24-year-olds' TV viewing is still of live broadcast, though.

dog borstal was fucking awesome

xp

75% of not much is not much, though

the name 'dog borstal' just used to tickle me. would always use it as an excuse for not being somewhere - 'gotta go, dog borstal's on in 15 minutes'...

house of tiny tearaways I remember being good. that, mighty boosh, being human and pramface are probably the only things I ever watched on bbc3

BBC Three comedy for instance is consistently terrible, the only bright spots in my memory being People Just Do Nothing (comprising one episode) and Ja'ime - Private School Girl (bought from Australia).

Comedy obviously most specific thing ever taste-wise (I can't stand those ultra-broad Chris Lilley shows, say, which seem weirdly racist to me), but I feel like there are enough innovative spots in the long list of shows they commissioned to make 'consistently terrible' not true: Nighty Night, High Spirits, 15 Storeys High, Mighty Boosh, Snuff Box, Pulling...

75% of 16- to 24-year-olds' TV viewing is still of live broadcast, though

How has that number changed over the last five years though? Even over the last year? You'd expect that number to be a lot smaller in two or three years' time alone.

had forgotten 15 storeys high. was a long time ago...

Ideal might be the best thing BBC3 have ever shown.

was that the line at the top of the "close it down" report?

Pulling is my favourite ever BBC3 show but they didn't give it much of a push or a third series (I also loved Snuff Box and that was buried six feet deep in the schedule) so I wonder whether the best stuff will actually do better in a digital environment where shows can earn their followings outside of a channel identity that older viewers find offputting. That's the pint-half-full argument anyway.

The three half full pints and a package of crisps argument

a channel identity that older viewers find offputting.

Yeah, this. To the extent that when people have brought up good shows broadcast on BBC3 in its defence, I realised I'd forgotten that they were on that channel at all, so successful has the BBC3's marketing of itself as the home of crass dumbed-down rubbish been.

the BBC3

lol

a channel identity that older viewers find offputting.

Yeah, well i doubt most 16- to 24-year-olds find Radio 4's identity terribly welcoming either.

I am not really a Radio 4 person but I admire it and appreciate its existence and sometimes think, maybe I should listen to this constantly.

I also don't find radio 4#s identity terribly welcoming. Radio David Fucking Cameron.

Pramface was BBC 3, wasn't it? That was ok.

series 3 is on at the moment.

Yeah, well i doubt most 16- to 24-year-olds find Radio 4's identity terribly welcoming either.

True. So what? I'm sure the same scenario would apply there - there are certain Radio 4 shows that would find a broader audience if they were on a digital platform.

they are

matt lucas started out on bbc2 right?

Radio 4 I think

Reasonably certain that most of the standups they mention started as standups, regardless of TV exposure.

I like that matt lucas thing where he plays a lazy and stupid African woman shop assistant

that's almost as funny as Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's traffic warden sketch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1BP3AHLZWw

Yeah that was awful too. Only thing I liked in 'Harry and Paul' was Whitehouse's intellectual working class man, and the soviet style opening credits.

should have gone with parking papageno and done it all in the style of the magic flute

Stats here are amazing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26492684

155,000 given criminal record in 2012 for not paying license fee, accounting for more than 10% of criminal cases.

70 jailed.

Cases

Not sure where the extra 'cases' at the end came from there.

70 jailed.

Pretty sure you don't get sent to jail for not having a TV licence. You can go to jail if you don't pay a fine, which might sound like the same thing but it applies to all kinds of minor crime.

Yes, that's what i assume that they are referring to here. The last time i had a serious look at this was about ten years ago and, at the time iirc, courts pretty much stopped sending people to jail for non-payment of fines relating to TV licenses. Seeing it go back up to 70 is remarkable. The fines disproportionately affect women and (obviously) those dealing with the most extreme poverty so there was a real push to manage things more humanely. Giving people in difficult situations a criminal record for non-payment of what is effectively a debt / bill in the first place is unusual. Non-payment of utility bills / debts isn't generally a criminal offence.

utility companies can cut you off* but the bbc can't

(* actually i think they aren't allowed to deny people such fundamentals as electricty. so instead they install pre-payment meters which effectively do the same thing.)

Isn't non-payment of council tax a criminal thing for the same reason? The council can't turn off the streetlights etc.

They could blindfold you.