首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The Future of the BBC As a boy growing up in the 1930s in the Midlands, Norman Painting, the son of a railway-man, listened
The Future of the BBC As a boy growing up in the 1930s in the Midlands, Norman Painting, the son of a railway-man, listened
admin
2010-09-25
29
问题
The Future of the BBC
As a boy growing up in the 1930s in the Midlands, Norman Painting, the son of a railway-man, listened to a new radio service from the British Broadcasting Corporation. His mother hoped he would get a job as a manager at the mine, but listening to the voices from London talking about world affairs, culture and music gave him other ideas. "The radio opened a door to the world," says Mr. Painting, who went on to Oxford University on a scholarship and became an academic before later working for the BBC’s Radio 4 in its long-running soap, "The Archers".
Mr. Painting’s story helps to explain Britain’s devotion to what it calls "public-service broadcasting", and why the state has been standing by the BBC in the financing issue. The debate had raged for years over whether the BBC should still be publicly financed, especially by a license fee paid by all those with TV sets. The BBC hates the idea of losing its license fee. Rather than go commercial, its bosses plan to keep fighting for public financing for decades. In 2006, after a heated debate, the government renewed its financing for the next ten years through a compulsory "TV license" on all households with TV sets. But when the current charter runs out in 2016, will the government take away its public subsides and leave the BBC to fend for itself?
According to recent reports, the BBC will have to make do with annual increases below retail-price inflation, less than it asked for. Even so, it is fortunate to be handed a guaranteed income over several years. Among developed countries, only Germany’s government spends more than Britain’s on broadcasting as a share of GDP. America’s dispenses next to nothing, preferring to leave it to the market.
For the next ten years, the BBC’s position looks secure. Yet it’s getting increasingly harder to argue that the government should make the public pay for it. The BBC’s purpose, according to its first director-general, John Reith, was to "inform, educate and entertain". But now the BBC can’t have anything like the educative role it used to play. Though it remains Britain’s dominant source of in-depth news and most reliable provider of high-quality programming, changes in technology and media habits are splitting its audience and making it harder to tag improving shows on to entertaining ones.
Serving What Public?
It was easy to get the teenaged Mr. Painting interested in the BBC programs because there was nothing else on. That is no longer true. First the other terrestrials sprang up: ITV, followed by Channel 4 and then Channel 5, from the 1990s, hundreds of new channels were launched on satellite and cable platforms, creating a new "multi-channel" world. The rapid rise of the Internet has also taken a toll of the old generalist channels. People are increasingly turning away from both the BBC and its terrestrial competitors.
Two decades ago, the BBC commanded 47% of all television viewing and its rivals, ITV and Channel 4, shared the rest. According to Ofcom, the communications regulator, today, BBC1 and BBC2, its terrestrial channels, account for just 33% of all viewing, multi-channel services (which include BBC3 and BBC4, both digital channels) win 30%. In homes with satellite or cable television, the corporation’s share has fallen further: BBC1 and BBC2 together have just 23% of the former and 22% of the latter.
Young people especially are abandoning public-service programmers. According to Ofcom, in 2001, people between 16 and 24 spent 74% of their viewing time watching channels such as the BBC and Channel 4, but in 2005 only 58% of their time. Poorer, less educated viewers seem to be turning away, too. Serious material suffers most when people move to multi-channel television.
The result, says a BBC executive, is that "we are over-serving" middle-class 55-year-olds. The BBC is trying to widen its audience. In 2002, for example, realizing that it was hardly reaching young black people, it launched a digital radio station called 1Xtra, modeled p pirate radio.
Some say the BBC fails to attract younger viewers because it takes too few risks. Channel 4, another public-service broadcaster, has a bit more youth appeal: The average age of its viewers is 45. Kevin Lygo, its director of television, says that whereas many BBC programs are "full of integrity and truthfulness but also safe, respectful, back-looking and all about heritage". Many of the BBC’s new programming offerings are "all exhumed (挖掘) from the distant past".
The BBC’s Efforts
But good, innovative ideas have not entirely departed. Popular programs such as "The Office", a bone-dry comedy about a paper supply company, bas been copied by broadcasters in America, France, Canada and Germany.
The BBC has long tried to tack between high-minded and populist programming in an effort to get people to watch improving stuff that they would not have encountered otherwise. But technology, which increases consumer choice, is complicating the task. "Hammocking" scheduling worthy material between smash hits is a familiar BBC technique. A recent adaptation of "Bleak House" (凉山庄), for example, was scheduled straight after "Eastenders", a popular soap opera. But remote controls and video recorders have made hammocking less effective.
The BBC is trying harder to conceal public service themes beneath entertainment. Its approach to ethnic minorities used to be a boring talk-show about discrimination late at night, now it’s cleverer, With programs such as "Apprentice". Aspiring entrepreneurs in this reality show get knocked out week after week; many of the most successful contestants are from ethnic minorities.
The People’s Telly
Many households, now watch and listen to little of the BBC’s output, but almost all pay 131.5 pounds a year for it. The rapid shift to digital TV makes the debate whether the BBC should be publicly funded especially pressing. Set-top boxes (机顶盒) can tell whether a household has paid for a channel or not. Soon it will be practical and easy for everyone to choose whether or not subscribe to the BBC, or bits of it.
Toward the end of the digital switch-over, which will happen between 2008 and 2012, the government will examine other ways to finance the BBC after 2016. The likeliest change is that the television service would become partly or wholly subscription-financed. Radio would take longer to wean off public money because most radio sets now in use do not have the technology.
The author tells the story of Norman Painting to illustrate ______ .
选项
A、the BBC’s educative role for the working class
B、the popularity of the BBC in the 1930s
C、BBC’s influence on ordinary people’s career development
D、the British’s love for the BBC and its justification for governmental support
答案
D
解析
参见第二段第一句:Mr.Painting’s story helps to explain Britain’s devotion to what it calls“public-service broadcasting”,and why the state has spent increasing sums of money on the BBC.
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/jqeFFFFM
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
A、France.B、BritainC、Germany.D、Spain.B细节题。男士向女士打听老板什么时候回来?女士回答老板刚刚从法国回来,他先去了英国,然后是德国和西班牙。因而老板的第一站是英国。故答案为B。
HowWindEnergyWorksHarnessingthewindisoneofthecleanest,mostsustainablewaystogenerateelectricity.Windpower
Intheinterestoflightnessofweight,everythingyoucarryinyourpackshouldserveasmanypurposesaspossible.Clothingan
Intheinterestoflightnessofweight,everythingyoucarryinyourpackshouldserveasmanypurposesaspossible.Clothingan
Freelancephotographycanbeahighly【B1】______careerandcanpotentiallytakeyouaroundtheworld.Thescopeforworkislar
A、Becausethemountainisover12,000feethigh.B、Becausehehadnoexperiencesinceheleftcollege.C、Becausehiswifewasn’t
Achildwhohasoncebeenpleasedwithatalelikes,asarule,tohaveitretoldinidenticallythesamewords,butthisshould
Directions:Peopleinmodernsocietyliveunderalotofpressure,fromeducation,career,orfamily.Soitisimportantforthe
DoesGeneticResearchThreatenOurCivilLiberties?TheCurrentGeneticResearchThescienceofgeneticsisaflourishin
A、Regularservice.B、Overnightexpress.C、Samedaydelivery.D、Priorityservice.D综合推断题。男士向女士推荐了一种优先服务,可以保证包裹在三天后到达,男士最后还建议女士带包裹
随机试题
A.风痰阻络B.胃火炽盛C.胃气虚弱D.胃阴不足口僻可见于
A.蚊B.恙螨C.蜱D.乳鼠E.猪流行性乙型脑炎病毒的主要传播媒介是
患者,男,21岁。呼吸困难,咳嗽,汗出1小时而就诊。查体:端坐呼吸,呼吸急促,口唇微绀,心率114次/分,律不齐,双肺满布哮鸣音。为迅速缓解症状,应立即采取的最佳治法是()
建筑材料采购合同的条款一般限于()阶段。
甲公司欠乙公司20万元,丙为甲公司的代理人。丙与乙约定将于2009年1月l5日偿还。乙公司到期未付款,甲公司据此向法院提起诉讼。此行为在法律上将产生()。
用来衡量工人的生产成绩,核算和平衡企业的生产能力的劳动定额种类是()。
皮格马利翁效应体现了教师的()对学生的影响。
某兴趣组有男女生各5名,他们都准备了表演节目。现在需要选出4名学生各自表演1个节目,这4人中既要有男生、也要有女生,且不能由男生连续表演节目。那么,不同的节目安排有多少种()
如图所示,某计算机的内部数据通路如下:完成如下要求:(1)数据指令STAR1,(R2),其指令的功能是将寄存器R1的内容传送至(R2)中存储的内存地址所代表的存储单元中。请画出指令周期流程图。(2)标出各微操作信号序列。
A、Tobringmorestate-ownedlandintopaidland-usecontract.B、Tobeusedfornon-agriculturalmatters.C、Toincreaselandavai
最新回复
(
0
)