評(píng)論
打印
Conservative politicians have long suspected the BBC of closet liberal leanings. Boris Johnson’s government uses the “Brexit-Bashing Corporation” as a punchbag, as part of a strategy of drawing cultural dividing lines rather than economic ones. But the real danger posed by political skirmishes such as that over Mr Bashir is one of distraction. The more the BBC focuses on government assaults, the less it is able to cope with bigger threats emanating mostly from America.
長期以來，保守派政客一直懷疑BBC暗地里有自由主義傾向。鮑里斯·約翰遜政府把這家“惡評(píng)脫歐公司”當(dāng)作眾矢之的，作為劃定文化分界線而非經(jīng)濟(jì)分界線戰(zhàn)略的一部分。但像巴希爾問題這樣的政治沖突所帶來的真正危險(xiǎn)之一是分散注意力。BBC越是關(guān)注政府的攻擊，就越無法應(yīng)對(duì)主要來自美國的更大威脅。
More than six out of ten British homes now subscribe to an American videostreaming service. The result is more competition for eyeballs. In the past decade Britons have gone from watching four hours a day of broadcast television to just under three. Among under-35s, broadcast TV accounts for less than a third of video viewing.
超過六成的英國家庭現(xiàn)在訂閱了美國的視頻流服務(wù)。這引發(fā)了眼球競爭加劇。在過去的十年里，英國人每天看廣播電視的時(shí)間已經(jīng)從四個(gè)小時(shí)變成了不到三個(gè)小時(shí)。在35歲以下人群中，廣播電視在視頻觀看中所占比例不到三分之一。
The BBC is good at new media. Its website is Britain’s fourth-most visited after Google, YouTube and Facebook. The iPlayer streaming service, which the BBC launched in 2007 (the same year Netflix began streaming) is used by more people in Britain than any subscription platform. It is not enough. In 2019 under-35s spent less than an hour a day consuming BBC output, across television, radio and the internet, down by 17 minutes in just two years.
BBC擅長新媒體。該網(wǎng)站是英國第四大訪問量網(wǎng)站，僅次于谷歌、YouTube和Facebook。BBC2007年推出的iPlayer流媒體服務(wù)（Netflix在同一年開始推出流媒體服務(wù)）在英國的使用人數(shù)超過了任何訂閱平臺(tái)。但這是不夠的。2019年，35歲以下人群每天通過電視、廣播和互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的形式訪問BBC節(jié)目的時(shí)間不到一小時(shí)，在短短兩年內(nèi)減少了17分鐘。
The compulsory licence fee through which it is funded is not cheap: at 159 pounds ($225) a year, it would be enough for a basic subscription to both Netflix and Disney+, with money left over for popcorn. But the BBC is limited to about 25m fee-paying households and cannot borrow. Streaming companies have the world to fish in—Netflix has over 200m subscribers, Disney+ 100m—and are willing to lose money for years in the pursuit of market share. Whereas the BBC commissioned 2.8bn pounds of content in 2020, Netflix and Disney+ have a combined budget this year of more than $20bn. Amazon recently earmarked nearly half a billion dollars for a single “Lord of the Rings” series.
為其提供資金的強(qiáng)制許可費(fèi)并不便宜：每年159英鎊（合225美元），足夠基本訂閱Netflix和Disney+，剩下的錢還可以用來買爆米花。但BBC僅限于約2500萬付費(fèi)家庭使用，還不能借用。流媒體公司可以在全世界發(fā)展用戶，Netflix擁有超過2億的用戶，Disney+擁有超過1億的用戶，它們?cè)敢鉃榱藸帄Z市場份額而多年虧損。鑒于BBC在2020年委托制作了價(jià)值28億英鎊的內(nèi)容，Netflix和Disney+今年的內(nèi)容合計(jì)預(yù)算將超過200億美元。亞馬遜最近單為《指環(huán)王》系列就撥款了近5億美元。
譯文由可可原創(chuàng)，僅供學(xué)習(xí)交流使用，未經(jīng)許可請(qǐng)勿轉(zhuǎn)載。
