langebleu said:

I don't think you can be so sure of that.

Here is the link to listen. It is available for 7 days after the live version.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radi...html?docu3

Langebleu
the BBC is not a commercial entity, it is a public service entity with a commercial arm, but because it is paid from by a licence fee or subscription it can't be called a commercial channel.
My argument is that no other commercial channel would ever risk doing something so in depth and intelligent as the commercial motive is selling and appealing to the greatest amount of people. Part of the problem with the music industry is that it is trying to be all things to all people but ends up being none and offering lack of choice.
The money the BBC makes is put into intelligent programming and i hope it continues as satellite tv is frankly on the most part, a load of expensive but vacuous American imported crap.
Also i have seen TV in America/Canada and it is absolutely terrible as it is full of adverts every 5 minutes (literally).
So, my argument is that it is a very good institution and if it wasnt for its world service and News arm, we'd all be biased consumers rather than objective people.

Langebleu,
there has never been as much bootleg material around. The ONA tour is apparently the most bootlegged tour ever so i am sure someone has access to the vault.
The reason i say this is that 3 years ago i came across a site with some really rare songs from the 80's that i dont think could have just been found through "other routes"

Freaker said:

Oh - so Prince records stuff from the audience and puts it in his vault, to which someone has access? I never said that there wasn't an abundance of bootleg material about. I said that the flow from the vault has been stemmed. How many of the ONA tour recordings (apart from 'ONA-Live!') do you think came from the vault?

Freaker said:

The BBC, under the new leadership of Greg Dyke the organisation IS run as a commercial entity.

Yes, some areas of the group are funded in a unique manner (licence fees, etc) but on the whole, groups such as BBC Worldwide and the whole BBC Ventures group of companies are indeed commercially viable in their business.

Not all of the profits from BBC go into making programmes, the organisation is far more diverse than that.

Freaker said:

I'm not knocking the BBC per se. I pay my licence fee by direct debit, visit the website, enjoy some of its output on television, buy some of its commercial products, and I listen to the World Service from 1 - 6am GMT every night (morning!!) and some of BBC Radio in the UK, most particularly Radio 3 and 4 - hell I was even on a Radio 4 programme last year! I have also watched commercial television across the Atlantic. I don't think we disagree on much. But I disagree on two counts.

Firstly, it is commercialised - and has become increasingly so over the past ten years (albeit arguably legitimately so, and within its public service remit). Parts of its commercialisation I fully support such as its provision of supplementary educational material.

Changes wrought before Greg Dyke's arrival by Birt, and Checkland before him, have sought to make the BBC (to fulfill its public service remit) operate in a commercial market and this has had an impact on its output as well as its internal administration and progressive outsourcing. Part of this impact has been an increasing commercialisation.

Secondly, whilst it seeks to provide an objective presentation of news, this is of course ultimately impossible. Rather, it seeks to present facts fairly, and it certainly attempts that well on radio around the world - particularly in the face of cutbacks to its World Service, which appear to be in favour of delivering poorer digital television alternatives.
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[This message was edited Mon Jan 27 11:00:14 PST 2003 by langebleu]

part 2 was definetly more interesting( with new shit etc ) than the first part...

Hi. Well its a hotly debated issue and it has become more self-promoting to survive in a commerical environment but i still think that the expansion is good. They put a lot of good stuff on the new channels but unfortunately a lot of places cant get them, i havent seen them yet, but it growing and to me that can only be good.
The World service is good, when i was in Israel it was nice to listen to it in the mornings to hear what had been going on.