Re: [Swprograms] BBC World News on BBC America (was: no subject)

[Aaron Dickey <adickey@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 11/2/05, jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx <jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> BBC America is carried on the digital cable tier by Time Warner here.
> I had noticed that the channel recently started carrying a full 3 hour
> block of BBC World News between and 6 and 9 am ET.  My initial
> reaction beyond welcoming it was "What took you so long?"

My initial reaction was "We've been had." While we only got the first
half of each hour-long block before, we got the _entire_ half-hour.
Now that BBCA has so graciously allowed us to view the second halves
of each block (at least in the morning), they've gone in and done what
BBCA does best: Wreck the flow of the program (and in this case,
eliminate much of it outright) by shoving in commercials where they're
not meant to go. What I most enjoyed about watching BBCWN in the first
place was the longer in-depth pieces that they air twice during each
newscast. Those two segments are the ones that are now dumped out of
in order to make room for ads for weight-loss pills. (The commercials
are now being inserted in the still-only-30-minutes 6:00 pm airing as
well.) Yes, I realize that BBC World specifically formats the newscast
in order to allow local carriers in various parts of the world to dump
out at those points and run some advertising, but I didn't realize it
was too much to ask that the BBC not dump out of _itself_.

It doesn't help that the three newly-added half-hours (which get
dumped out of as well, though at least then it appears the dumping is
taking place when BBCW is only airing in-house promos itself, so we're
not really losing content) aren't much to phone home about. The
15-minute sportscasts are bland (though I'll admit to simply not much
caring myself for international sports beyond a little bit of auto
racing; perhaps I'd enjoy the coverage more if I did), and the
15-minute World Business Reports, while well-produced and informative,
really don't provide the American viewer with any information that he
or she isn't going to get by watching CNBC or Bloomberg (or  CNBC
World if it's something truly Euro- or Asia-centric). Only the "News
Extra" segments are a truly excellent addition to BBCA's programming,
IMHO.

All in all, I'd rather go back to the old system and get the full
_news_casts, than have this "expansion" that denies us access to the
best stuff the BBC correspondents are producing.

Also, it deeply annoys me that BBCA has decided that if I wish to
watch the news, I must make a choice between BBC News and my own local
and national news. Are the 6:00-9:00 am and 6:00-6:30 pm time slots
the _only_ ones available on BBCA?

>  Evidently, the asking price for the commercially-oriented
> BBC-A (which was a joint venture with Discovery Networks, I believe,
> and may still be) was too high previously.

As I understand it, the BBC owns the entire channel, but Discovery
handles distribution, commercial sales, and all that. And of course
they get a lot out of the deal, such as the rights to create inferior
American versions of all those BBC shows on TLC.

Sorry to rant, but I have long thought that BBCA is the single most
ineptly programmed cable channel in the United States. It could be so
much, but in the end is so little.

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