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Why Is Public Television So British?

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BirdInFlight
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01 Dec 2016, 10:39 am

I know this is a heinous thought to many people who love PBS, but I always thought they should just bite the bullet and accept advertizing. It's only cultural snobbery that makes them not want Nut'n'Honey cereal popping up during "President Lincoln's Finest Hour" or re-runs of Keeping Up Appearances.

The BBC has the same problem. Just stop trying to live off public funding and just let the commercials come. My view is "we the viewers can handle it -- we have to on every other channel."



auntblabby
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01 Dec 2016, 4:32 pm

BirdInFlight wrote:
I know this is a heinous thought to many people who love PBS, but I always thought they should just bite the bullet and accept advertizing. It's only cultural snobbery that makes them not want Nut'n'Honey cereal popping up during "President Lincoln's Finest Hour" or re-runs of Keeping Up Appearances. The BBC has the same problem. Just stop trying to live off public funding and just let the commercials come. My view is "we the viewers can handle it -- we have to on every other channel."

PBS already HAS adverts, even though they are comparatively subtle next to the commercial networks. aside from that, the problem with accepting advertising is that you also must accept advertiser pressure as part of the bargain, IOW you no longer have editorial independence but must kowtow to the wishes of the advertisers regarding programming and program content. that = censorship. [not saying there is no PBS censorship, that is a whole 'nother thread] so more adverts are a big no-no for PBS for that reason.