Time to unfollow them, I guess.

  • whatevercomeon@lemmy.world
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    30 days ago

    The UK obviously is no longer a superpower. But the BBC is the cornerstone of the UKs modern global soft power projection. Broadcasting it free projects the UK government’s voice around the world directly into homes, influencing world policy to their liking.

    Putting a paywall in the US sends a message that they feel it is not needed or not effective in the US market.

    It also mirrors what paid sport broadcasting in the UK has done. Paywall it for short term gain, at the expense of long term viewership growth. The UK is struggling.

    • Raltoid@lemmy.world
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      30 days ago

      Paywall it for short term gain, at the expense of long term viewership growth.

      Making a company worse for increased short term revenue, at the cost of customer retention, product quality, etc. causing increased turnover which further compounds all the other steps. Is a common issue among all modern companies.

      In short, there was a shift in MBA education a while back that includes a bunch of lies-by-omission and misrepresented data. Meaning that the only thing on their mind when they graduate, is to please investors at any all costs, including company longevity.

    • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      I love the US defaultism even when they’re talking about another country’s public news station

      (edit: the title originally just said it was adding a paywall without mention of any country)

        • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
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          1 month ago

          I asked OP to update the title in another comment which they did (and appreciate) but it made this comment of mine confusing 😅. The original title didn’t have any mention of which country. It just said they were adding a paywall

  • alexc@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    And just at a time when the US really needs a decent news service…

    I am sure this was discussed at the Starmer - Trump talks as a way to further isolate Americans from the truth.

    I guess it’s just Al-Jazeera now…

  • Humanius@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    So that sounds to me that Americans should use a VPN to pretend they are accessing the website from Europe

  • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    BBC announced it’s introducing a paywall for consumers in the U.S

    It seems like it’s only for the US? If that’s true can you update the title OP

  • Obinice@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Makes sense, we pay our licence fee for our public service, why should people abroad get for free what we have to pay for?

    I was happy with the current arrangement of adverts supporting the service use abroad, but if it has to migrate to a subscription model to meet modern demands then that’s the way it is.

    I wouldn’t go to another country and ask them to make one of their government’s national public services free for me to use, after all.

  • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I know there’s rights issues and all but if they made a real BBC streaming service with their back catalog and every David Attenborough special in 4K, it’d be one thing but Americans are inundated with news and streaming services. I pay for my local newspaper’s digital site — mostly because if I don’t, who will? But even The NY Times has to have recipes and word games to keep people subscribed. Why would anyone pay more than a dollar a month or something for BBC News?

    The U.S. seems like an odd place to trial this. It’s the most competitive media market in the world and we’re all already sick of being asked to pay for 40 different services. In conclusion:🏴‍☠️

  • axus@lemmy.ca
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    29 days ago

    Geez, I feel slightly to blame for checking bbc.com a couple times a day and rejecting the cookies

  • Alex@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Seems fair enough, these things cost money and the #BBC is in a race to diversify it’s income in preparation for the license fee going away. The dynamic description sounds like they want to preserve the casual visitors experience of an open site.

    I get ads on my BBC podcasts when I’m abroad. I assume that’s all part of it.