Ghetto blaster 

10 August 2004 tbs.pm/560

‘Documentary soap’ blighting BBC

The rise and rise of the ‘docusoap’ has been well documented over the last few years; it’s a format which has been made possible in recent times through the availability of cheap and small video cameras, and its low cost and high ‘ratings appeal’ has made it popular with cash-strapped broadcasters worldwide.

Docusoaps provide an easy-to-produce and relatively cheap form of factual programming which also serves as entertainment and can be popular with many viewers, so all things considered it’s no wonder that they are very popular with broadcasters in general. And a relative lack of UK commercial sector regulation in recent years has encouraged this trend still further; it’s entirely arguable that this shift towards the docusoap has been partly responsible for some of the subjective ‘dumbing down’ that has occured in recent years.

It might be arguable that criticising BBC One for a lack of documentaries is a bit like criticising CBeebies for a lack of sports programming when you consider the fact that BBC One has been recently (and subtly) repositioned as being more of a ‘mass market’ channel. This repositioning has often resulted in the traditional ‘long form’ documentary being assigned to other channels – particularly BBC Two or BBC Four – with the mass market docusoap taking precedence on BBC One.

In recent times the BBC has been under intense pressure to slash costs yet at the same time fund and promote additional digital channels, so when it comes to cutting costs it’s no wonder that the cheaper docusoap format has often been commissioned more often than expensive documentaries that risk having ‘limited appeal’. Combine this with the ‘mass appeal’ remit of BBC One and it’s easy to see why they have become more commonplace as a result.

Although not a documentary, a good example of how BBC One and Two are treated nowadays in terms of target audience and ‘intellectual content’ is Mastermind. This quiz used to be shown peak time on BBC1, but nowadays Mastermind ‘proper’ is shown on BBC Two with Celebrity Mastermind being reserved for post-watershed BBC One.

The docusoap format may have its virtues, but the traditional documentary format is still by far the best way of dealing with a specific subject in great depth, but a good documentary is relatively difficult to produce and consequently they often end up being more expensive compared with most docusoaps.

Having a BBC Four enables the BBC to correctly claim that it still produces ‘highbrow’ programming, even if the audience for it is very often much lower compared to the same programme on BBC Two. As a public service broadcaster, the BBC really ought to rethink the logic behind doing this, since ruthlessly maximising ratings on mainstream channels should really be left solely to the commercial sector.

Indeed this is my one and only criticism of BBC Four as a channel; its very existence enables the BBC to ‘sweep’ most of what demands an attention span of more than five minutes (if it isn’t sport) onto a ‘minority’ channel, leaving BBC One to compete head on with the trash of ITV1 and BBC Two to deal with Channel 4, hence creating the so-called ‘ghetto’ that documentary producer Eddie Mirzoeff was alluding to.

Fortunately for Eddie Mirzoeff, ex-BBC Four controller Roly Keating is now in charge of BBC Two – his appointment is in itself an interesting change in strategy – though he hasn’t had a chance to make much of an impression (if any) yet on the channel, but it will be interesting to see how many ‘real’ documentaries from BBC One and Two figure in next year’s Grierson awards.

A Transdiffusion Presentation

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