The Bbc And Festivals...

[janzman]

.... why does the BBC arrogantly presume there are enough licence payers to justify the enormous amount of money and airtime it devotes to the Edinburgh Fringe and Glastonbury.
And while I'm at it, is it fair that the BBC concentrates so much effort into 'Children in Need','Comic Relief' and 'Sport Relief' to the detriment of many hundreds of other worthwhile causes.

[Jomlett]

The beeb saves money putting on BIG shows, rather than paying repeat fees!

[fiction-factory]

Glastonbury is never on BBC1 is it? (Usually BBC2, and the Red button.) I watch some of their Glastonbury coverage. I do switch off/over when the CIN/Comic relief stuff comes on though

[douglas9401]

Children In Need, Comic Relief and Sport Relief provide much needed employment for piano players with a talent for the melancholy-shifting-to-joy stylings so beloved of artless TV producers the world over.
As to the rest, they have to do something other than news and Eastenders, it may as well be the biggest arts festival in the world and loads of top musicians in one venue.

[woofgang]

Why does the bbc arrogantly presume there are enough licence payers to justify the enormous amount of money spent on sport?

[fiction-factory]

I assume it doesn't arrogantly assume anything- i assume it knows many prefer sports to much of the daytime stuff that's on

[smoneybags]

If that's so fiction-factory why doesn't the BBC just put sport on all the time? What you say is clearly not true.

[fiction-factory]

No. What I say is clearly true. i didn't say people want sport all the time.
Over the course of a year sport probably accounts for less than 5% of BBC's coverage.
Other channels are available.

[Bathsheba]

I agree with you janzman re Children in Need, etc.

Baths
x x x

[gingejbee]

^^^one of the reasons the BBC doesn't just put sport on all the time....it wouldn't be fulfilling the conditions of it's Charter, if it did.

[woofgang]

same answer applies to festivals and charity events

[mikey4444]

I have always wanted to visit the Edinburgh Festival, so the BBC coverage is much appreciated by me.

If the Beeb didn't cover these events who would ? Do you think that ITV would seriously cover them ? ITV doesn't even cover the bloody Olympics !

Why don't you include the Proms coverage while you are at it ?

I am ignoring your comments about the charities !

Perhaps you should stick to commercial TV Janzman.

[janzman]

I'm not saying for one moment the BBC shouldn't cover these events, it's the sheer scale of the coverage that baffles me.

[mushroom25]

//Do you think that ITV would seriously cover them ? ITV doesn't even cover the bloody Olympics ! //

no mikey, but that's because ITV don't hold the broadcasting rights, not because they believe it's more important to show repeats of "goldenballs".......

incidentally, the BBC won't be showing the olympics after the 2020 Tokyo games as the rights in Europe are now exclusively held by "Discovery".

[mikey4444]

Mush...interesting and it appears that you may be correct.

But the Beeb will still be able to cover the Olympics in some form or other, according my this link, right up until 2024 ::::

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Summer_Olympics#Broadcasting

By the way, it looks as if the Beeb were instrumental in starting Children in Need, Comic Relief, and Sport Relief, and I can see no reason why they shouldn't continue to provide the highly popular Telethons that raise such huge sums of money.

[ToraToraTora]

sounds like cheap TV to me, no actors, just show up and film it.

[Postdog]

Glastonbury yes, Olympics no.