I remember when anything that you were not commenting about was cut out, but
that was in the early days of news groups when we had slow modems. :-)

I remember Open University programmes on BBC2 being very grey and
staid but carrying real information and being fascinating. You know -
really teaching something. Latterly, though, they had become very
colourful and musical but were more like introductions to the subjects
and didn't go in to any detail. At that point I lost interest in them.

I was a student with the Open University and the programmes were a part of
the course work, but if you missed the programme you missed part of the
course and they may not have been on when a student should have watched
them. It was these programs that got me into studying with the OU. The
biggest problem was that the courses were update so the programmes were no
longer relevant, by putting the course work on a CD/DVD we could use them
when we needed them.

They still make good programs with quality camera work and access to
places where normal people would never get. But why do they seem to
treat each program as a beginners guide. I can think, imagine and
discuss most things in-depth, but from my experience the BBC seem to
pander to the masses whose attention span is limited and will switch off
if it is not edu-tainment. For example, Country File is all fragmented
reports with the same reminder cropping up three or four times of what
is actually being reported. Why can't they do a single report from
beginning to end in one go and cut out the repeated reminders. Maybe
that would give time to included a more in-depth report or another
completely different subject in the same program.

Fragmentation means that they need less content for a programme, the
constant reminders of what is coming up or has been shown before wasting
time

What is the fixation about pandering to the ratings? If people switch off
they still get the licence revenue. If people zap through ad breaks on
commercial TV then tough titty for the advertisers but the TV but the TV
companies still get the ad revenue.

If people don't watch the BBC there is no argument for the licence fee. If
people don't watch commercial TV Channels the advertisers don't use that
Channel. I suspect that most commercial channels are supported by package
charges for the none free to view channels.


tisers don't use that station.


eople don't watch commercial TV the advertisers don't use that station