An old BBC microphone. Pic by Dave’scunningplan, taken from Flickr under CC: license
Let’s be clear: at work, the BBC is a competitor. One of the strongest, and most commercially minded, at that.
But as a media consumer I love the BBC. This sets up an interesting set of conflicts.
I devour its output on TV, on radio, online via iPlayer, and on the web – although some, especially online, simply isn’t as good as it should be.
It is cracking value for money, especially compared to my Sky subscription, even if it appears to have lax internal controls on the tax money it spends competing with my employer and the rest of the private sector (ref its £36m – count ‘em – overspend this year).
Much of its journalism is superb. And I know some cracking people who work for it, who are motivated by the highest principles.
But…
It does keep saying and doing things which suggest it is either unaware of its 1000-lb gorilla status, or that it doesn’t care.
Here are three examples, two big, one quite small, all unconnected, but only from this week.
