Yet another BBC boss has shown how out of touch the national broadcaster is with its audience, by claiming that people love repeats at Christmas.
Kate Phillips, the £200,000 a year BBC Controller of Entertainment, made the controversial comments after it emerged that almost two-thirds of festive content scheduled for broadcast on BBC One and Two has been shown previously.
It is not the first time the BBC has been criticised for showing too many repeats. Last year the broadcast regulator Ofcom accused the Corporation of being too reliant on showing the same tired old tripe during peak time (we're paraphrasing there, but you get the gist).
Jo Stevens MP, who sits on the Commons Digital, Culture Media and Sport Select Committee, said: "It's disappointing to hear that yet again this Christmas, BBC schedules will be full of repeat programmes.
"Licence-fee payers expect more, and if audiences are served up old programmes again and again, they will look to other channels for Christmas entertainment and won’t come back to the BBC. It's self-defeating."
John O'Connell of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "No one minds a re-run of a classic film or an episode of Only Fools and Horses, but when there is so little original content at this time of year, licence fee payers might be feeling a bit short changed over the festive period."
Between 22nd December and 2nd January more than 300 programmes on BBC One and Two will be repeats, including Dad's Army, The Good Life, The Vicar of Dibley, Morecambe and Wise, Wallace and Gromit and Planet Earth. Several classic Christmas films are also being broadcast for the umpteeth time.
BBC mouthpiece Phillips said: "We do show repeats but we find that people love a bit of repeats because Christmas is all about tradition and family traditions."
Watch LBC Nick Ferrari's hilarious rant about the state of the BBC.
People on Twitter were less than impressed when the BBC Press Office published the Christmas Day and New Year's Day BBC One schedules.
@FattusAntus tweeted: "I'd honestly prefer to spend my Christmas Day getting stabbed than watch any of that shite."
@G_Stino was equally frank in his opinion: "Good job I don't watch TV on Xmas day. That's got to be the shittest BBC One line up of programmes I've ever seen."
@deano2061 added: "Another reason to abolish the television licence! I'd sooner watch the fridge defrost than indulge on any of that bilge."
According to the BBC more than 90% of BBC One's prime time schedule is original content this year. That includes drama Luther, Sarah Phelps' adaptation of Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders, a six-part drama adaptation of 19th century classic Les Miserables and a three-part adaptation of Andrea Levy's best-selling novel The Long Song.
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Thank god I have Netflix and Amazon Prime. I cancelled the Paedophile subscription 3 years ago when I ditched BT. They still took 3 months fees off my repayment because I went a couple of days over into another quarter, so I watch any channel but the BBC until the end of October. In 36 years I have only had a subscription with them for 6 years. That was because of BT TV otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.
ReplyDeleteThe BBC are criminals who are protected by the UK legal system. Marks & Spencer would not get away with selling used clothes and charging full price, so why should the paedo, secret tranny BBC be allowed to steal people's money in exchange for repeat mind control Pro-grammes that have been aired many times before? Each householder should be given a refund for being conned by the BBC and be forced to do so by their governing body. Or are they Freemasons as well? They should not be allowed to get away with showing continual repeats, which is what Sky does and the reason why I stopped paying for a licence. If I have a problem with Marks & Spencer's goods, my issues are dealt with professionally which is not the case with the BBC, they abuse and defraud the public and get away with it and this has got to end. Because they are controlled by Jewish Freemasons and are Freemasons, they can do as they please. This is very unfair. The public are not tools to be manipulated, conned and treated disrespectfully by a religious cult. If the BBC are not going to offer new content, then they must be forced to close down and refund householders who have not been given what they have paid for.
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