Radio One today ...

[janzman]

Unfortunately at work Radio 1 is on and theres no getting away from it. Today has been devoted to the new Harry Potter film.
Heres my beef..... Who gives the BBC the right to publicise a commercial enterprise like this new movie when the only ones benefitting from it will be the already mega rich JKRawling and all others associated with the Harry Potter franchise.As an organisation that relies on compulsory subscription rather than commercial investment it seems more than a little hyppocritical

[marwel7]

Who gives them the right to play music all day when the only ones who will benefit from it are the musicians the music companies and all the agents and so on associated with the musicians.
I think it is called entertainment.If the BBC had to choose not to cover the release of new films,and other media,on the basis that they are produced for commercial reasons they would have great difficulty making programmes,enev news,as they would be unable to refer to things that might interest their audience.

[janzman]

The BBC has always been right at the very front when it comes to promoting new music and new musical talent..just remember the legendary John Peel...But thats not what Im saying.To bring new music..new drama...new theatre....new sport..new politics...new... well just about anything is what public service broadcasting is all about .To bring relatively small snippets of new talent from every aspect of the day is good but to devote an entire days broadcasting to one subject suggests an ulterior motive and thus a missuse of licence payers money

[Legolassie]

What about all the Michael Jackson stuff - the Katie and Peter saga. We have had it on TV & Radio constantly. Personally I am not interested but there are people out there who like to listen to this muck. My philosophy is 'If you don't like it - switch off'.

[marwel7]

Even if it is of interest to their audience? Surely that is what public service broadcasting is about.And a competent broadcaster doesn't give stories away to it's competitors.

[socket2008]

I get the feeling that the question is more of an attack against rich people rather than who the BBC are promoting.

Although I personally feel that Rowling and the like should forfeit monies once they get to a certain level and give it to the less well off, the story is about an up coming popular film.

Ultimately, the BBC is a public channel that caters for the public and reports on the public interests (ie football, music and yes popular genres such as Harry Potter).

[tonymclark]

I think you will find it is all about attacting an audience.

Harry Potter has a big following, why shouldn't the BBC attact that following to its TV and Radio programmes, in the hope that the new audience will like the surrounding programmes and continue to listen, rather than go back to HeartFM or whatever station they used to listen to.

If I was a Radio producer with a falling audience, I think I would have a Harry Potter day to attact new listeners.