If today's reports that the BBC Asian Network is closing down are true, then how am I going to get out of bed on a Saturday morning?Sweetie, if you need a niche radio station paid for by everyone else in order to do that, you've got far more problems than you think...
Listening to Love Bollywood with Raj and Pablo from 9am to noon is my weekend ritual. It's the only place where I can get my fix of movie star gossip. I can't afford to buy digital TV channels or Indian magazines and, anyway, by the time Filmfare arrives at my local supplier near Brick Lane it's usually out of date.Lots of people can't afford to buy things they want. They don't have the cheek to demand that other people pay for them on pain of imprisonment, though.
Well, not until they get into Parliament, anyway...
Earlier this month the Guardian reported BBC chief operating officer Caroline Thompson's views on why the Asian Network needs to be evaluated. "It broadcasts in a number of different languages to an audience that varies from younger to older listeners," she said, describing this as a "difficulty". I think this should be celebrated as a triumph...You would, wouldn't you?
...how am I going to learn about Asian life? We are sadly not yet living in a time where minority voices, Asian and non-Asian alike, are completely assimilated into the mainstream media.And if we maintain niche radio stations broadcasting in foreign languages, they never will be.
You clearly didn't think this through, did you?
I can't even turn to the commercial Asian radio stations any more to hear what's happening in Asian news, sport and entertainment, because last year saw the closure of Club Asia and Zee radio.And why?
Because there's no demand. Either because it's too niche, or because, as Ross points out, with the BBC providing it for free, commercial stations are crowded out.
We'll find out which, no doubt, when the Beeb stops wasting licence payer money on this sort of thing.
11 comments:
..how am I going to learn about Asian life?
You are that concerned fucking GO there... and DON'T come back.
Never mind just this pointless little radio channel...what about the real money pits?
Like Radio 1.... a national version of any one of the hundreds of commercial staions all over the country. Salaries in the stratosphere. Why not auction it off, I'm sure Virgin would be keen to try again for a national commercial FM station license.
All the local radio stations, same thing, close them down or sell them off. Nothing they do is unique and needs my taxes to pay for it.
BBC3, utterly pointless, whose programs are either repeats or will be shown on BBC2 next week. miniscule viewing figures..shut it down...and all the other stupid little channels.
Sky manage perfectly well with a subscription/pay-per-view model. Why not have that for the BBC instead? Have a core Freeview offering that all companies have to contrubute to for basic news etc then charge for the rest.
Kill the TV tax!!
Can't be any worse than losing 'Mark and Lard' from Radio 2, John Gaunt from Talksport and Terry Wogan in the morning
http://www.radiofeeds.co.uk/
all multimedia data content is available on demand streamed for free
pls direct issues with content to the production team and not the reporter
any individual or group opposed to this is criminal by definition
there is an off switch
;o)
Paying tax is optional. Anyone who claims it is deducted at source needs a new supplier. The only consequence of a determined effort to withhold taxable payments due is meals, board and lodgings at her majesties pleasure or emigration or anonymity.
PAYG is expensive but costs far less in terms of registration.
As Asians (do they mean those from the Indian sub-continent, or Russians, or Chinese? I know who they mean) constitute less than 5% of the nation by population, why are the other 95% expected to pay for this nonsense? And that Persian TV station. What a liberty.
Anybody wishing to hear radio transmissions in Asian languages should clear off to Asia.
"You are that concerned fucking GO there."
Indeed. It's not like this country is East Germany, resticting the movement of its citizens.
"...what about the real money pits?"
They won't touch them. A little tinkering round the edges is all they'll do, just to show willing.
"...and Terry Wogan in the morning"
I thought so too, at first, but I've quite warmed to Chris Evans!
"all multimedia data content is available on demand streamed for free"
Indeed. The Beeb is fighting a battle in which it's increasingly outmatched.
"...do they mean those from the Indian sub-continent, or Russians, or Chinese? I know who they mean..."
Me too. And I really wish they wouldn't use that designation...
"Anybody wishing to hear radio transmissions in Asian languages should clear off to Asia."
Or listen in on the Internet!
Damn, Furor beat me to it.
Not involved, don't have a telly, so 20thC, don't pay telly tax.
No. But you have a computer and the internet, unless you write from work or some seedy café. Are you not now suppossed to have a T.V licence for that?
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