Tag Archives: BBC

BBC Director-General’s goal? “A Netflix of the spoken word”

2 Replies
Lord Tony Hall (Source: BBC)

Lord Tony Hall (Source: BBC)

(Source: BBC via Richard Langley)

“With our world-class content, we could use our current output and the richness of our archive to create a Netflix of the spoken word,” said Lord Hall.

…

“One of the big challenges I have set my teams is just that: to enhance our global audio offer. The BBC makes the best radio in the world. It is one of our crown jewels, and we have an extraordinary wealth of audio riches at our disposal.

“It’s one of the things that will help the BBC carry the full weight of Britain’s culture and values, knowledge and know-how to the world in the years ahead. And say something really important about modern Britain.”

Spread the radio love

BBC World Service to launch 11 new language services

5 Replies

(Image source: BBC)

(Source: BBC News)

The BBC World Service will launch 11 new language services as part of its biggest expansion “since the 1940s”, the corporation has announced.

bbc-newlanguageservices

The expansion is a result of the funding boost announced by the UK government last year.

The new languages will be Afaan Oromo, Amharic, Gujarati, Igbo, Korean, Marathi, Pidgin, Punjabi, Telugu, Tigrinya, and Yoruba.

The first new services are expected to launch in 2017.

[…]The plans include the expansion of digital services to offer more mobile and video content and a greater social media presence.

On Wednesday the BBC launches a full digital service in Thai, following the success of a Facebook-only “pop-up” service launched in 2014.

Other expansion plans include:

  • extended news bulletins in Russian, with regionalised versions for surrounding countries
  • enhanced television services across Africa, including more then 30 new TV programmes for partner broadcasters across sub-Saharan Africa
  • new regional programming from BBC Arabic
  • short-wave and medium-wave radio programmes aimed at audiences in the Korean peninsula, plus online and social media content
  • investment in World Service English, with new programmes, more original journalism, and a broader agenda

The new language services mean the BBC World Service will be available in 40 languages, including English.

Lord Hall has set a target for the BBC to reach 500 million people worldwide by its centenary in 2022.

Click here to read the full article…

In addition, Mike Terry, posted a link to this Leading Article  from The Times which focuses on the BBC expansion. This content is behind a paywall (though you can register to read two free items per week) but here is an excerpt from the conclusion that I found particularly interesting:

“The radio may seem an irrelevance in the age of the internet but it is the most intimate of the so-called mainstream media and as such poses a challenge to authoritarian rule. Radios are cheap, ubiquitous and can whisper truths under the bedcovers. There is nothing that dictators hate more than direct access to the ears of their subjects.”

Indeed.

Spread the radio love

Foreign Affairs Committee believe “government should fund BBC Monitoring”

1 Reply

(Source: Parliment.UK via Andy Sennitt on PCJ Media’s Facebook Page)

Government should fund BBC Monitoring, not the licence fee payer

bbc-monitoring29 October 2016

It was a mistake to end Government funding for BBC Monitoring in 2013 and that change should be reversed, say MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Report findings

The Foreign Affairs Committee says BBC Monitoring is vital to the FCO’s scrutiny of developing events across the world. Highly valued by the Government, the service translates and analyses news and information from freely available media sources in 100 different languages and covering 150 countries.

Triggered by a shortfall of £4m in funding, the BBC now proposes an extensive restructure of the service, which would mean the closure of 40% of BBC Monitoring posts in the UK and 20% of posts abroad, and relocation of the service from Caversham to London.

The Government is the prime customer for the service. The Foreign Affairs Committee believes Government should restore funding for open source monitoring of media sources overseas, whether they pay BBC Monitoring or carry out the work themselves.

Chair’s comments

Chair of the Committee, Crispin Blunt MP, commented:

“BBC Monitoring is a highly regarded organisation whose work is more important than ever.

These cuts to BBC Monitoring, proposed by the BBC, are simply not in the interest of the UK Government. They will not help the FCO improve its performance in detecting trends and undercurrents overseas that have implications for UK policy – something it notably failed to do in Libya, for instance. Given the vast increase in social media output, this kind of monitoring is more important than ever.

Other countries with similar operations fund them from central Government. The principal benefit of the output of BBC Monitoring is better-informed Government policy, which is why the Government should fund it, not the licence fee payer. It’s notable that in the face of these cuts, government departments are in the process of recreating this capability internally. This should not be necessary and we should be bolstering the work of BBC Monitoring, not cutting it.”

Further information

Spread the radio love

Anniversaries of BBC and CBC broadcasting

1 Reply

Pilot-Model-TV

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kris Partridge, who writes:

A day or two late, but I don’t know if you have this about CBC:

(Source: Southgate ARC)

Canada’s public broadcaster, the CBC, is 80 years old

Modelled somewhat on the BBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation came into being on November 2, 1936.

Surprisingly many of the issues that led to the creation of the CBC, are still around today.

In 1936, there were 74 radio stations across the country; three were CBC stations and four more were leased.  All however were dwarfed by signals sweeping across the border into Canada from more powerful US stations. Concerns of US domination of Canadian airspace, is still a concern 80 years later.

Full article here:
History: Nov 2, 1936 -Canada’s Public Broadcaster birthday: 80 today

Also yesterday was the 80th anniversary of the start of Television broadcasting in the UK

(Source: BBC Blogs)

The BBC’s first British television service launched 80 years ago today, on 2 November 1936. To mark the occasion our colleages at BBC History have launched a new website celebrating the landmark anniversary combining archive material from the early days of television.

The site is packed full of video and audio footage telling the story of television including its invention, the opening night at Alexandra Palace in 1936, TV closure during the war and its resurrection in 1946, as well as TV’s milestone moments such the Olympics and the Coronations of 1937 and 1953. We’ve selected some choice clips below to whet your appetite[…]

Read the full article and watch the archived video by clicking here & more here.

Additional links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15551270 & http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15554897

Unfortunately due to various geo restrictions the one hour long programme from BBC4 last night is not viewable on iPlayer (catch up TV) outside the UK, sorry about that.

Fantastic! Thank you Kris. I’ve really enjoyed viewing the archived footage on the BBC Blog.

Spread the radio love

A new way to navigate the BBC Archives

Leave a reply

Zenith-Dial-2

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, William Lee, who shares a link to this article on the BBC Blog:

Currently there are over 15,000 permanently available programmes, largely radio programmes, on the BBC website dating back decades, but they can be very difficult to find. From today, we’re launching a new piece of technology called ADA (Automated Data Architecture) that unearths and helps people navigate the BBC’s rich archive of permanently available programmes.

As you can see below, it adds a list of related topic tags under the description of the programme. So if you’ve just listened to an episode on Ada Lovelace and were interested in other notable women of the Victorian era, you can now click that tag and find all the permanently available programmes on that topic. There are programmes on Beatrix Potter, Florence Nightingale and Sylvia Pankhurst to name a few. There will also be up to three recommended programmes on the right hand side, with a link to the topic that connects them.

This seemingly small change to a programme page can lead you down interesting little alleyways to fascinating places you never expected to visit. For example, starting off at Ada Lovelace can take you all the way to a programme on Julius Caesar via ‘the Byron family’ followed by ‘Fellows of the Royal Society’ then ‘Captain James Cook’ and finally the ‘Deaths by stabbing’ topic tags. Give it a try here and see where you end up.

Some programmes like Desert Island Discs, which have a lot of programmes available, have navigation which is tailored very carefully to the brand. This makes it easy to find programmes but also means the system cannot be re-used across other BBC brands or programmes.[…]

Click here to continue reading this article on the BBC Blog.

Spread the radio love

Mark notices a Yaesu FRG-8800 on “Death in Paradise”

4 Replies

frg-8800

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Hirst, who writes:

I noticed recently in an episode of the BBC series, “Death in Paradise“, a Yaesu FRG-8800 sat on a book case.

[The screenshot is] from Season 4, Episode 1 “Stab in the Dark”, with the radio off DS Camille Bordey’s right shoulder. [See image above–click to enlarge]

The Yaesu FRG-8800 (Source: Universal Radio)

The Yaesu FRG-8800 (Source: Universal Radio)

So far, it has never been used. As the show is set on a fictitious Caribbean island, perhaps the props people figured a radio like that might be part of a busy island police station where seemingly someone dies every week.

I wonder what other shows people have noticed amateur radio gear in (Season 2 of 24 comes to mind, when Kim Bauer is taken in by a survivalist).

Thank you, Mark. I like how the FRG-8800 is just sitting there on the shelf–doesn’t look like it’s connected to anything.

Only recently, I noted a classic shortwave receiver in the trailer of a film. I think I captured it and made a note, but forgot to post. I’ll see if I can find it and post. Hopefully, seeing the image will jog my memory!

Spread the radio love