How one of our public broadcasters uses my taxes

[Ban Kenobi]

Most things don't improve when you take profit out of the equation the way television does. This is hardly a call for a state-run economy.

[Hauldren Collider]

Most things don't improve when you take profit out of the equation the way television does. This is hardly a call for a state-run economy.

Television doesn't either.

[Alexander's Horse]

Most of them are just your average arthouse film in Europe- not even terribly explicit. I thought S.B.S. was a great channel when I was living in Melbourne and I really admired their approach to news and to showing foreign programming in its original language. I also enjoyed stories about Australia's history, like the one on Adaminaby.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/16534871?q&versionId=19408158

That said, the vaginal knitting thing could have been found on Channel 4 in its early days and we've had much more explicit stuff shown on Channel 5 and even during Channel 4's 'Eurotrash'.

I find performance art all a bit dull these days.

SBS is our favorite TV channel, we spend about 90% of our TV time watching it. It is brilliant, but sometimes they go too far, the SBS editorial team at work:



Of course if you want free porn I recommend French TV, Canal movies...why anyone would ever pay for porn in their hotel room in France or Italy, I'll never know

[rah]

Different cultures. We Americans can be such prudes.
I remember flying back from Egypt and my (female) boss was sitting in the seat next to me. I turned on the display on the back of the seat in front of me to watch the in-flight movie and much to my surprise, a full frontal nudity shot appears on the screen. Decisions, Decisions, If I don't change the channel right away will I come off looking like a man of the world, or a perv. This would never happen on an American airlines flight.

And yes, I took the "almost killed myself jumping to change the channel". *Sigh*

What would you have done in that situation?

[kentonio]

Started masturbating?

[KrazyHorse]

First funny kentonio post

[Imran Siddiqui]

Stick to the argument that it provides a service that wouldn't be provided if it didn't exist.

AND Even that argument is getting thin these days with the proliferation of cable channels.

This is a good place to start the discussion, IMO. I do think that both PBS and NPR provide indepth news in a way that for-profit news does not (most for profit news tends to jump quickly from story to story). I also believe that promotion of the arts is an important social goal and appreciate NPR and PBS's efforts in those directions. YMMV.

[Captain ******* Kirk]

First funny kentonio post

No.

[Alexander's Horse]

Different cultures. We Americans can be such prudes.
I remember flying back from Egypt and my (female) boss was sitting in the seat next to me. I turned on the display on the back of the seat in front of me to watch the in-flight movie and much to my surprise, a full frontal nudity shot appears on the screen. Decisions, Decisions, If I don't change the channel right away will I come off looking like a man of the world, or a perv. This would never happen on an American airlines flight.

And yes, I took the "almost killed myself jumping to change the channel". *Sigh*

What would you have done in that situation?

change channels. I have however sat and watched the inflight movie, laughing along, while my silly boss worked. It probably wasn't the smartest career move but career isn't everything and sometimes its better not to be a clone of your boss. Working on planes has never agreed with me.

[pchang]

My last female boss was a lesbian. She probably would have asked me what channel that was.

[Lorizael]

PBS and NPR are ****ing terrible and they need to stop taking my tax money
Not a surprise to me that the Australian equivalents are also bad.

Do you support public funding of libraries? If so, what do you see as the fundamental difference between libraries and public broadcasting/radio?

[rah]

I don't see anyone else providing what libraries do, but I see many providing what PBS does.

This is a good place to start the discussion, IMO. I do think that both PBS and NPR provide indepth news in a way that for-profit news does not (most for profit news tends to jump quickly from story to story). I also believe that promotion of the arts is an important social goal and appreciate NPR and PBS's efforts in those directions. YMMV.

I'll partially concede the news part of your argument, but I don't think it's as different as you paint it. The last time I looked at the numbers, not many people were watching the news on PBS and they were falling. But I haven't seen them in a while so I don't know if that has improved. But with the falling ratings for the news across the board in general due to people getting more news from the internet, I doubt PBS has experienced anything different.
For promotion of the arts, I'll disagree. In the old days of limited broadcast channels I'd have agreed, but not these days. With the plethora of cable channels there is no shortage of of the arts on television.

[Lorizael]

I don't see anyone else providing what libraries do, but I see many providing what PBS does.

Bookstores...?

[rah]

Bookstores require money. Many lower income people can't afford to go to bookstores.

[Imran Siddiqui]

but I see many providing what PBS does.

Do you? Maybe that depends on what you see PBS as providing?

I'll partially concede the news part of your argument, but I don't think it's as different as you paint it. The last time I looked at the numbers, not many people were watching the news on PBS and they were falling. But I haven't seen them in a while so I don't know if that has improved. But with the falling ratings for the news across the board in general due to people getting more news from the internet, I doubt PBS has experienced anything different.
For promotion of the arts, I'll disagree. In the old days of limited broadcast channels I'd have agreed, but not these days. With the plethora of cable channels there is no shortage of of the arts on television.

Isn't the point that an indepth news source isn't necessarily going to get ratings the reason that it can exist on public news rather than on the for-profit channels? As for the arts, are there many cable channels showcasing things like, say, classical concerts? Even the documentaries are worlds apart from, say, History Channel, which has basically become a place for sensationalized crap. I think that a channel a bit shielded from ratings profits (even though they mostly are funded through individual donations) helps to prevent radical ratings chasing which I don't think cable channels touch - in addition, not everyone has cable. It's nice for those who can't afford it to have access to culture .

I will concede that Downton Abbey or Sherlock would be able to be picked up by other broadcast channels if PBS didn't exist - but one wonders if PBS didn't bring them to the US shores in the first place, would they?