How does the BBC Broadcasting Channel work?

[Monocle smile! p_o]

I'm writing a speech on mainstream media in the U.S. and as part of my solutions I was going to suggest more regulations on the News industry. The way that the UK does it with BBC.

I'm American so my knowledge of The BBC is very little. I only know it's somewhat paid for by the government.

I wanted to know how exactly it works.
Who funds it?
How does the news differ from what's in the US?
Why is it better than in the US?
How is it more regulated than the US?
Does TV in the UK function the same way as it does in the US? (With like different cable or satellite providers competing)

If you could provide me with some articles where you get your information that would be great.

[tomlin.james]

Government pays some?? Didn't know that. Probably not true...

I do know that if you live in a house, you have to pay for a TV licence. This costs £145.50 per year (I think) and you can have upto 15 TV sets in your home
With the channels received check this link http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-yo...for-TOP13/

Cannot answer how it differs and I cannot compare to US TV, although I would prefer to have FOX News as they play live coverage of police chases and stuff which is cool
It is the viewer that pays for
Yes we have cable and satelite, everything is now digital here in the UK. I will provide a link to the TV licensing

Have a browse through

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/

[Sidge]

The BBC is funded by the public, in that anyone who owns a colour TV must, by law, pay for a TV licence, and that funds the BBC Corp. It's not just TV, where there's two channels, but also three radio stations, BBC 1, 2 and 3, as well as some other smaller stuff.

Because of the way it's funded, there is no need for advertising revenue, so it's not affected at all by commercial interests, meaning it doesn't get influenced by big business. It also means there's no adverts, which is awesome!

It also aims to practice something called public service broadcasting, which means that it's supposed to air a certain amount of programming that benefits the public in some way, i.e. there are major social issues such as drugs, rape, things like that, written into some of the shows, with helpline numbers afterwards for people who were affect by the content and want to find help.

There's also an element of education in it, like educational kids programmes and documentaries.

The news is supposed to be completely impartial and unaffected by party politics, but this isn't always the case. It's subject to an independent review board in some cases, as with recent coverage of the Arab Spring, where it was judged to have handled certain parts of it with inaccuracy in bias. Because it answers to an independent committee, there's a lot less bullshit on the BBC news programmes than you'll find on channels like Fox news, for example, because if they bullshit, they have someone to answer to.

And finally, it does Top Gear, which is the most awesome programme in the history of TV, ever.

All other TV channels are funded the normal way, through ads. The only major satellite and cable network is Sky, and it functions like most networks in the US.

[guiri]

The BBC does make money from advertising (e.g. BBC World, internet etc.) and selling programmes.
In addition to the license fees, the government gives hundreds of thousands of pounds to the BBC for a service which is free to TV watchers in other countries.

Although terrestrial programmes are advert free, Many programmes are made with adverts in mind so the BBC runs endless trailers for future programmes to made up the time. The net effect is just like ads.

Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC#Revenue

The BBC shows many US programmes.

[andian]

BBC <=> MI5 (SIS,MI6), covertly of course.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1...staff.html

[Sarah Smith]

Some extra 'un asked for' info: Although in theory the BBC is a great idea, its actually all falling to pieces.

There is a SEVERE lack of money. Top managers are only staying in the company for very small amounts of time. Things are changing big time and there is redundancies everywhere (I think).

Also there is the whole 'Jimmy Saville' thing: Turns out one of the HUGE kids TV presenters was a pedophile and heaps of the BBC staff knew it but didn't say anything.

SO yeah .... I know thats not what you're asking, but its still interesting.

[DaveS]

A couple more extra points to add to answers already given:

As said, the BBC's UK radio and TV channels are funded by the licence fees, but their international radio and TV is paid for by the Government, as part of Foreign & Commonwealth Department expenditure.

All free to air TV news (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, etc) is strictly regulated to be impartial, especially during general elections, where all parties are expected to have fair coverage. This doesn't mean the present governing political party is able to censor coverage, as the regulation is done by an independent board of governers. Also worth noting that during the phone hacking scandal that SKY News covered the story as well as all other channels, if not a bit better, despite being part of Murdoch's media empire. SKY didn't try ot hide the story away on the metaphorical 'page 97' like FOX News did in the US. Also to note that the BBC has covered the Jimmy Savile (one of their ex employees) scandal as well as other news channels.

[Kwisatz Haderach]

BBC + Work - that my friend is an oxymoron

[Motherwellstarship]

Abolish the TV License

[John G]

News in the UK covers the whole world, we get all the news about whats happening in the US.