Word: bbc
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...Nobody stopped to ask if the BBC could sustain such growth, or if it was feasible for it to stretch itself in so many directions. Director general Thompson's new plans for the BBC, which he calls Creative Future, reduce staffing and budgets but leave the range of activities pretty much intact. There's a constant tension between the BBC's aim of making what Byford calls "brilliant, outstanding, special, stand-out content that raises the bar of broadcasting" and the Corporation's need to justify its existence by attracting mass audiences, which tend to eschew high culture and serious...
...Reith may well be spinning under the grass, but the BBC isn't alone in its travails. Britain's Serious Fraud Office may review documents obtained from the U.K. communications regulator, Ofcom, in relation to its decision to fine the breakfast TV company GM.TV. In September, the regulator imposed a penalty of some $4 million on GM.TV for encouraging viewers to dial premium-rate phone lines to enter competitions after winners had already been picked. ITV has admitted to similar practices. "Television is at a low point," says Graham Stuart, director of independent production company So Television...
...provoking the kind of controversy that still hooks big audiences. Controversy is, of course, hard to control. Channel 4's last run of Celebrity Big Brother sparked riots in India after Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty was subjected to racial abuse from fellow contestants. Earlier this year, The Verdict, a BBC reality show, brought together a jury of celebrities, including the novelist, former politician and jailbird Jeffrey Archer, to rule on a fictionalized rape case. It attracted heavy criticism for trivializing a serious subject, and viewing figures were paltry...
...shock tactics don't grab viewers, star power often will. That's the thinking that drives the competition between the BBC and other broadcasters to sign and retain big-name talent. A recent hit for the BBC, a science-fiction-infused detective series called Life on Mars, made for the BBC by the independent production company Kudos Film & Television, won over viewers with its originality and an unstarry cast. It's an exception in an era when schedules at the BBC and at commercial broadcasters buckle under the weight of leaden fare built to showcase stars or to reprise themes...
...Graham Stuart avers that broadcasters do need stars. He co-founded So Television with Graham Norton, an Irish-born comedian who fronts BBC chat shows and game shows. Norton "is paid a lot of money by the BBC," says Stuart, but "what we're doing here is show business and everything relies on a small number of talented people who are stars. They're the reason people will switch on." He adds: "If Lord Reith, a cranky old Presbyterian, could use the entertainment word, then other people should be able...