Bbc Presentation At The Villa

[Snaipyr]

I had an invite to go, but had other things to do, so didn't. I thought I'd hear what I missed on Manx Radio today, but nothing.

 

Anyone else go? Many there? What plans for the IOM were presented by the clutch of BBC senior execs there? Were there lively questions? Did anyone ask why we've been lumped in with North West England region? Any fights break out, any blood shed etc etc? Any skeet appreciated.

[ste1205]

I popped along.

 

Not very exciting really. I should have stayed in and watch Fred Elliot pop his clogs, I say I should have stayed in watched Fred Eliot pop his clogs.

 

Only around 50 in the audience and half of them seemed to be BBC employees, the other half included representatives of the local media, current MHK’s and candidates, the Bishop, Sir Lawrence and Lady New.

 

Gordon (Burns) reminisced about his previous trips to the Island and chaired the proceedings. He also promised that when Diane presented the weather he would make sure that her arse was not over the Isle of Man.

 

They did a session on what they have done to improve Isle of Man coverage (the partnership with Manx Radio, the www.bbc.co.uk/isleofman website etc) and what they will be doing it the future; starting with the employment of two locally based journalists. They indicated that there had been around 100 applications – not all of these were based on the Isle of Man.

 

Gave a bit of detail about how a local digital television service might work if it is rolled out. Interestingly they thought they would have up to 6 local journalists if this were to be rolled out.

 

Brian Stowell had his usual rant which I think they dealt with quite well – that was the closest we came to a fight.

 

They accepted that they do not always get it right in terms of where to place the Isle of Man or Isle of Man content. They have similar issues with the Channel Islands.

 

They confirmed that they would be covering the General Election, both in NWT and the Politics Show.

 

There was a good talk by the techies - one BBC and one from the organisation responsible for getting the country ready for the digital switchover. Without going into detail this covered how we get our TV signal on the Isle of Man and how it will be transmitted in future, digital television roll out, DAB and a little about their HDTV experiment.

 

I was surprised to learn that there are 900,000 people throughout the British Isles who can not receive analogue television services and that this will not go down when the full digital roll out has been completed.

 

They took questions after both sessions from the floor.

 

Like I said before, not very exciting.

[Snaipyr]

Very many thanks for your report on the presentation (you wouldn't be a journalist by any chance?!)

Glad I didn't go now - but I would have liked to hear what Brian Stowell had to say. I usually respect his views.

[steven !]

I counted about 40 people in the audience plus 6 BBC folk on the bench.

 

Pretty much as ste1205 has said.

 

Brian Stowell mentioned the BBC bus at Tynwald this year and how the people from the BBC seemed to think it was just a bit of a village fair type thing. He also mentioned how the BBC seemed to think the Isle of Man was a part of Lancashire, England.

 

The diplomatic reply was "We often struggle to portray your status. Our best hasn't been adequate" followed by a "I'm afrald we haven't pleased you on thls occasion".

 

Also present were the two big boys from 3fm, Ron and George, but the only person who I could see with any Manx Radio connection was John Kennaugh. I was hoping the lady going round with the microphone could have got him to say something about "Saaandwiches" but this wasn't forthcoming.

 

There were one or two good questions but a few were a bit weak considering the panel who were there to help us.

 

I left to go to the Peel Election 'Any Questions' meeting. That was much more fun and I have written a bit on that in me blog manxforums blog?

[Declan]

There was a good talk by the techies ... DAB

 

When is that to be expected?

[steven !]

There was much talk of bandwidths and dedicated lines across the water and "a complex programme of work".

 

Pehaps there should have been more techie types there but instead we got questions about sovereignty and the appropriateness of the hymns on last weeks Songs of Praise.

 

And something about weather girls accents.

[Declan]

And this was from an invited audience of the Island's elite?

[steven !]

Well I didn't know it was invite only until I realised everyone had name tags on!! So I had a cup of coffee and made myself at home. Besides, the place was more than half empty (Colonnade Suite) so no probs.

 

I was dressed a bit casual too and was chuffed when Sir Lawrence New came up and asked me about the poor quality of his TV signal from Snaefell. He must have thought I was one of those people that go up the masts or something.

 

As I say, the Peel thing was much better fun and the coffee was just as good.

[ste1205]

I understood that we could expect some DAB with the roll out of the Digital service over here in Easter 2008.

 

Delivery of DAB relies heavily on "line of sight" and to achieve the same level of coverage of the existing analogue network would need in excess of 2000 transmitters versus the current 150 or so.

 

The BBC DAB service will comprise the Radio's 1,2,3,4,5, World Service, 1 extra, BBC 7, Asia Network, 5 Live Extra and 6 Music. None of the local BBC stations will be covered on DAB.

[Lawnmower]

I've been told that DAB radio is a seperate thing to digital telly, and will NOT be rolled out here, unless our Government stump money for what is needed.