Re: [Swprograms] [Internetradio] [dxld] BBC World Service to reduce shortwave transmissions

[Richard Cuff <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>]

What I understand the BBC will do, depending on geography, is insert
underwriting announcements at the bottom (and likely top) of each
hour, just like APM does today on the BBCWS feed that US public radio
stations get.  Those are regarded as "commercials" by the BBC.  Note
that the BBC itself doesn't receive revenue directly from those APM
inserts, though the BBC does receive revenue from APM itself.

These commercials, underwriting announcements, or whatever you wish to
call them, will not be heard by listeners in the UK on the Radio 4
rebroadcast or, one assumes, if they listen to the live stream via the
iPlayer.  This is because the BBC cannot air commercials in the UK as
part of the regulations surrounding the Licence Fee.

The FM relay of the World Service that airs in Berlin has carried
these commercials on an experimental basis, and listeners were then
surveyed regarding their impressions...apparently the results were
encouraging to BBC management.

I suspect that those using the Internet stream, either directly or
indirectly (e.g. TuneIn) will hear commercial inserts based on their
IP address - so we won't be necessarily hearing ads for Tennant Lager
when we stream the World Service.

However, some of the ads aired via shortwave might be interesting, if
the BBC places them based on the intended target region...

This topic will come up on this weekend's "Over To You", which first
airs 2350 UTC Saturday.

Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA  USA




On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 9:55 AM, Joe Buch <josephbuch@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
> FCC rules will not permit the airing of commercials on stations licensed as
> non-commercial stations.  I wonder how BBC intends to filter out commercials
> from feeds to such stations.  Failure to come up with a plan will result in
> the loss of many USA listeners to BBC World Service.
>
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