Strictly Come Dancing — it’s a public service
MediaGuardian.co.uk (free reg required) reports on changes that the BBC Trust has proposed for the BBC iPlayer on-demand TV service. The changes are “part of its public value test for the iPlayer” and include changes to “series stacking”. This is described by informitv.com as allowing “users to view an entire series of programmes within seven days of the broadcast of the last programme in a series, which has been described as equivalent to “giving away the boxed setâ€? of programmes.”
The MediaGuardian reports on the results of the Trust’s public value test:
Series stacking will only be available for certain kinds of programme, the Trust has ruled, “with a distinct run, with a beginning and end, and a narrative arc or those which are landmark series with exceptionally high impact”.
EastEnders, Horizon, Top Gear and Blue Peter would be excluded from series stacking under the Trust’s iPlayer proposals.
But series such as Bleak House, Planet Earth, Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing would be included.
So: there’s a public value in broadcasting celebrity-reality tat Strictly Come Dancing and sci-fi hokum Doctor Who. But there’s no public value, apparently, in the science series Horizon or the educational magazine programme Blue Peter.
I feel a letter to Paul Dacre coming on…
