All posts by Briantist
Below are all of Briantist's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Peter Wright: Thanks... The coverage maps are generated by a separate system that I will need to run and then upload... I will sort this as soon as I can.
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MikeB: Yes, Freesat was always the better HD choice..My loverly Humax HDR1010 must have known I was going to write up a long-term review of it, because it just started power cycling when being turned on.I took it back to Richer Sounds - where I got it from - three whole weeks ago and they said it's abroad somewhere in a Humax workshop "not yet needing parts".It's very disappointing, I need it to watch non-BBC programmes to take out the adverts. I'm doing everything Chromecast as my Freeview HD box is the first generation and doesn't support recording.
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Tony Nicholson: I don't think that this money covers actual transmission costs, this is "CONTENT & RELATED", rather than transmission. The money for TV transmission is spent via Arqiva who own the transmitter network. The money listed is for everything up to the point of transmission, as far as I understand it.
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Paul: One thing that sometimes happens with new equipment is this one - Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you - this seems quite possible given you are in a strong signal area.As the channels you listed are all on the same multiplex - COM6 - you might also have Single frequency interference .
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Simon Parsons: Thanks for your kind comments. The only way to look the cost of distribution in Scotland is to look at BBC Alba. It costs 6m a year for "content", 1.4m for "distribution", 900k for "content and support costs" and 700k for "general overheads". So, 15.5% ... For BBC One it's 3.2% (46.2/1,433.6) for distribution. It's a great shame the BBC Annual Report doesn't break these down.
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The BBC is today setting out details of how we plan to save £150 million to address a shortfall in funding identified earlier this year.
The shortfall has arisen because as more people use BBC iPlayer, mobiles and other online catch-up, the proportion of households owning a television is falling, while a loophole allows viewers to watch catch-up TV without a licence.
We have welcomed the Government's firm commitment to close this loophole, and will continue to urge Ministers to legislate as swiftly as possible.
An independent study by PwC has already shown the BBC to be among the most efficient organisations in the public sector and regulated industries, and our record betters that of Government. However, in July we committed to doing everything possible to protect programmes and services by making further savings from back office functions, cutting management and management layers and reducing historic levels of BBC bureaucracy. This is part of delivering a simpler, leaner BBC.
Despite this, we always said that cuts to programmes or services would be unavoidable. Even after today's measures, the BBC faces a long-term challenge to identify a further £550m of savings by 2021/22 and we will set out broad plans for this in the spring. We will inevitably have to either close or reduce some services.
The £150 million of savings detailed today will be delivered in the following way:
£50 million will be saved by creating a simpler, leaner BBC, with fewer divisions and senior managers, fewer layers between the top and bottom of the organisation and cutting 1,000 posts. Strong progress is already being made the first phase of work is now complete and subject to staff consultation and further detailed work:
c£25m will come from reducing back office and professional support services
c£10m from reducing management layers in content areas. Discussions are now beginning with those affected
The remainder from the merger of technology and digital divisions, and changes to expenses, payroll management and other areas
In total, we are on course to deliver the 1,000 reduction in jobs by 2017. Since July, we have already closed or are consulting on over 300 of these posts
£35 million will be saved from the BBC's TV sports rights budget. Meeting this savings target will be tough, particularly given the high levels of inflation in the market. We therefore anticipate this will lead to the loss of some existing rights and events. We have already made some tough choices which have contributed to the savings, for instance around the Open Golf. However, we have also recently secured a series of important rights including Wimbledon, Premier League highlights, live coverage of Euro 2016 and 2020 football championships and Six Nations rugby shared with ITV
Beyond Sport, a further £12 million will come from the BBC's TV budget. Drama will be protected, including the prioritisation we have already announced, but a range of other genres will face cuts. This will mean some reductions to factual, comedy and entertainment, although we remain committed to making popular Saturday night shows and will use the savings from The Voice UK to develop new, home-grown formats
£12 million will be cut from BBC Online. This will involve rationalising new features, innovation and development across the BBC's digital services, and focusing on those with greatest impact
£5 million will come from News. This will include efficiency savings from a review of working practices, terms and conditions, and commercial income or cost reductions in BBC Monitoring (subject to approval from the BBC Trust)
£20 million of savings will come from long-term contracts and other costs, due to the current lower levels of inflation
The final c£16m will come from cross-cutting areas, including
Savings in distribution costs
Exploring a phased exit from the broadcast Red Button service and focusing our interactive TV offer on connected televisions and iPlayer
Exploring further savings from BBC Online
Director-General Tony Hall said: The BBC has and is doing everything possible to make sure the impact on the public is minimised. Wherever possible we're targeting savings by creating a simpler, leaner BBC.
But cuts to budgets for programmes and services are unavoidable. No Director-General wants to announce reduced spending on services that the public love. This is very tough, but the BBC's financial position means there is no alternative.
The £150 million set out today is part of the £700 million overall savings the BBC must find due to the flat licence fee agreed in the summer and the need to fund the transformation the BBC must undertake for the future.
We will announce how the remaining £550 million savings to be met by 2021/22 will be made in the spring. These are likely to include broad service and major structural changes to how the BBC works and fulfils its mission to inform, educate, and entertain.
BBC - BBC sets out plans to deliver
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Steve J: It's only 9% with Freeview Light. It's just not economical for the commercial multiplex operators to extend their Freeview services to all the transmitters. They (Arqiva plc and ITV plc) long-since relinquished the ability to be allocated frequencies for them as the costs of adding in 1000 extra transmitters can't be economically justified. See Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters?
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Steve J: I rather suspect that you are assuming that what you do is what everyone does, a common misunderstanding. That's why I listed the "reach" - the number of weekly users - for each service. If you've never met people who use these services then perhaps you need to consider who - for example - the 6,100,000 people who listen to local radio in England are (they're probably pensioners in this case). Radio 2 might not be my cup of tea either but 15.1m listen to it, a whole quarter of the UK. The "never meet anyone who listens to it" World Service has 210,000,000 people who listen to it.
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Friday 13 November 2015 3:48PM
js: I'm not sure if there have actually been many sales of Freesat SD equipment, I'm sure I recall reading somewhere that it was almost all HD.This isn't the case for old-fasioned Sky boxes, where there are a lot of SD ones still out there costing broadcasters a small fortune to support...Thanks for your updates, my satellite box is away being fixed...