Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Minority say BBC not "local" enough....

The BBC needs to improve its coverage of the UK's nations and regions in its main news bulletins and factual programmes, a report has said.

A review for the BBC Trust said the BBC was "falling short of its own high standards" and failing to meet its core purpose of helping inform democracy.

Research found that 37% of people believed that BBC news reports were often not relevant to where they live.


Which means almost two/thirds believe that the BBC reports are relevant then to where they live.

If you want to watch “local” news then you watch your “local” BBC, the majority seems to be happy enough with that.

6 comments:

Timothy Belmont said...

I'm afraid I don't fit into the stereotypes who answer BBC polls. I got satellite so that I could watch other BBC regions; I mainly watch BBC One London, BBC Two England, ITV 1 London, Channel Four London.
I don't like local broadcasting and ads much.
The only local programme I watch occasionally is Hearts & Minds.

Tim

Hen Ferchetan said...

The problem for me with BBC News (and ITV, and Sky and etc etc) is not that they haven;t got enough about my locality or Assembly news, it's that they give top heading to things that the Commons have decided even though they;re devolved.

Changes to English NHS or Schools are trumpeted loudly, even though they have no relevance to the rest of us. Put those stories onto English local news and keep the politics on network news to national issues and I'd be happy.

Hen Ferchetan said...

This is some more details from the report...

"A 136 stories on health and education analysed during a four week period - every single one dealt with England alone. 208 Westminster MPs interviewed in stories relating to devolved issues, 27 Scottish MSPs, one AM."

(Quoted fro Betsan's Blog)

Unknown said...

136 stories on Health and Education in a four week period concerning England alone and every single one of them voted on by non-English MPs imposing their will and generally treating England as a colony to be managed not to the benefit of the English but rather to the benefit of the nations receiving the resultant Barnett largesse...

O'Neill said...

Tim
I don't like local broadcasting and ads much.

I think we are particularly unlucky in NI with the fare served up by our local wing of the BBC. Also it so clearly follows its own political agenda (eg its 100% pro Maze stadium stance) that it is laughable at times.

Timothy Belmont said...

BBC NI's local output must be costing the Licence-payer an absolute fortune. In my experience the BBC sticks its head in the sand if they get challenged with awkward questions. For instance, why do they have two presenters for Newsline, when it only takes one presenter on London's equivalent programme? The population of the metropolis is many times that of NI.
I preferred the BBC when there was more emphasis on UK-wide broadcasting, rather than regional stuff. In many ways I'm as interested in what's happening in London as Belfast!

Tim