BBC Parliament Campaign

I think BBC World should be on at least Sky where this is space for it due to my long held belief that the BBC shouldn't be allowed to make any channel which isn't officially receivable in the UK.

Now back to BBC Parliament. It's job is to provide live, unhindered, untalked on coverage of Parliament. It does that. If you just want roundups of happenings at Westminster, there are programmes on BBC2 to give you that. If you just want key points about major topics, it'll be on the news.

BBC Parliament is for people who want to watch a whole debate and not have it edited or talked on. That's what it's supposed to do and that's what it does. It doesn't need a revamp.

However, what it does need is promotion. It should be better promoted by the BBC. It barely gets a mention - I can't ever remember seeing a trail promoting BBC Parliament on BBC1 and 2 despite the fact that News 24 and Choice and to a lesser extent Knowledge get constant promotion.

It also needs pictures on DTT. It can't be in the BBCi channels menu because it's on a different multiplex on DTT (and I think on a different transponder on DSAT aswell). But it can have pictures. There must be room for them somewhere.

Come to think of it, there is a fair bit of slack bandwidth lying around on DTT when channels aren't broadcasting. ITV Digital and SDN and D3&4 could do well by selling unused bits of bandwidth to each other so that people could fit more channels on. It could mean that the likes of ITN could broadcast for more hours (maybe in several different blocks, but anything is better than 5:30AM-9:00AM only). I know that if channels have space on different multiplexes it will mean that there will need to be multiple entries for each channel. But that's not a problem. When TV Travel Shop was on Sky Analogue it used to be on about 2 or 3 different channels and move about during the course of the day taking up slack airtime where it could fit. At least on DTT they would be on the same channel number for the majority of people. I don't know why this hasn't been done.

This is an exact cut/paste of what I said on the other thread so here's goes
...................................
Frankly I've already posted saying the idea of a 2nd Mux for the BBC would be too hard to implement - but I suppose it couldn't be too hard - provided you divide up the material properly so the text services aren't trying to cross over.

How about...

BBC Mux1

BBC1
BBC2
BBC3
BBC4
BBC Children
[Space left for additional screens, possible alternate programming etc]

BBC Mux2

News24
4xQuarter Screens for News Interactive
BBC Parliament
4xQuarter Screens for choice of programming
[Space left for future new channels]

It might work - but first BBC Parliament would have to have its schedule and remit reorganised so that we weren't left with huge gaps. It could show much more debate and comment, coverage of US politics, the European parliament, Scotland, Wales and NI, The GLA, Public Inquiries, the UN, and political stories that aren't so formal. Possibly they should rename it and change it to a more general politics-based channel? Anything to make it work

I rather like it as it is actually, sorry to be boring, but as long as it can reliably relay me comprehensive coverage without fuss, and inform me of who's speaking when, nothing else matters.

It doesn't have to have lots of technical add-on jiggery pokery, DOGS, etc to make it better. It already does what the original aim of the channel intended: Broadcast us good coverage of parliamentary affairs. We should be grateful for the stuff it does show us, other countries would be less than willing to share the amount of coverage than we do.

We're damned lucky.

I suspect they would make it widescreen, but most of it's programming comes from the pool feed from the Lords and Commons... which is 4:3

Actually, it is on the BBCi menu on DTT, and it has always been on the BBC multiplex.

Only by dropping the picture quality of the other BBC channels to what could be considered unacceptable levels.

Surely they could just rent space off another DTT provider, like they used to with BBC Knowledge which was carried on the SDN multiplex. It could even use that space on SDN, since that hasn't been filled yet.

Ok. I get what your saying. It does what it's been made for. But if they are going to promote it would make sense if it was more appealing. I don't want people talking over the coverage.

There have been however been times when I've tuned in and just seen a static screen with text and god awful music. That could be filled with something like a special parliament breakfiller or something.

OK, maybe that's the only way I can see how it could be improved - provide us with a split channel like the new BBC regional service - one feed giving us continuous Commons coverage, and at the flick of a button, switch over to continuous Lords coverage.

Yes but it isn't a space problem, its a legality problem, you won't get BBC World over here and thats it.
Also the only reasone people want BBC World is for the music, I like the music but its not a sole reason to get a channel and people really should move on from that.
Also Gary Parliament costs little to produce so that isn't really a problem, also its just the beeb picking up a public service channel from someone else, its something they have to done.
GreenFairy's ideas are good, and the revamp people want is mostly what you spoke of, basically more interactivity and when there isn't a sitting some political programs. But of course don't forget your support for my BBC 5[live TV] idea!

Thing is, and this is the only reason why I'd be against such a thing, is that the BBC always claimed that they did not favour any platform over the others, but now D-Sat is racing ahead of DTT, and we don't get to play with any of these interactive things they're bringing out, other than the standard BBCi Text service.

Well I imagine it will be rebranded with a box logo soon.

Anyway, isn't the reason that it is so poor that it is run by whoever ran it when it was The Parliamentary Channel, but it was bought out by the BBC? IIRC, the BBC don't actually run it.

I think the reason most people on here seem to want BBC World is simply because it's unavaliable so they don't get to see all the presentation, hear the music in use, that sort of thing... Just like when the only BBC channel I could watch was World, it was interesting to see the joint weekends with News 24 where there'd be two presenters and the chance of seeing the News 24 titles.

Comparing the two, News 24 is actually more exciting - it does more things with it's graphics, gets to spend more time on live events and can do live interviews most hours instead of just in the hour when the new presenter comes on.

I think News 24 overnight, The World Today and BBC Four News should be enough (with CNNi also normally having a pretty simililar set of headlines to BBC World) - and as lots of people have said, it legally can't be shown here and there'd be no real justification for it even if it could. I can understand their frustrations, though, I'd quite like to see the new BBC Four News next week...

WHOA! BACK UP YOUR TROLLEY AND CRASH IT INTO YOUR LIGHT GATE! lol.

Back to BBC Parliament now. This is not a BBC World thread and I'm not letting it become one.

I think Parliament needs something like N24 Graphics for it. Ok it's not about graphics but they should be investing to get more viewers on it, get people intrested.