The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying
My kids have no concept of linear TV. My 9 year old came back and told me that a friend had a broken TV as when they turned it on, the program was already half way through.<p>Their &#x27;channels&#x27; are netflix, amazon and disney. When I had the choice and they were pre-school then sure, we watched things like Alphablocks on iplayer. I can force them to watch Attenborough or Blue Peter, and they enjoy it, just not enough to want to watch them over things on disney. There&#x27;s so much competition of things to do.<p>I do watch BBC (iplayer obviously) occasionally, but the material I&#x27;m interested in isn&#x27;t as accessible as it is on disney&#x2F;apple&#x2F;prime&#x2F;netflix&#x2F;youtube.<p>We watched Eurovision and Euro2020 (England games) this year. Aside from that the only BBC output we watched was Roadkill about a year ago, and the one Doctor Who episode which had John Barrowman in. I would watch have I got news for you, but whenever I remember to watch it, it&#x27;s not on.<p>This itself might not say a lot, and I still have a TV license despite the limited direct value I get (listen to a lot of BBC radio, and the news website), but what&#x27;s interesting is I actually work for the BBC. If my household barely watches it, where does the future lie.<p>Linear TVs days are numbered, but the underlying cultural links that prime time TV provided in the 60s through 90s has already gone. 1 in 4 people in the UK used to watch the same shitty sitcoms in the 80s because there was very little choice.<p>It&#x27;s not just BBC or the UK that has this cultural difference. &quot;It&#x27;s a wonderful life&quot; is an American classic. It is because it was shown on every channel every christmas year after year, generation after generation, and kids watched it, because it was that or reading a book.<p>I think Star Trek was right with its outlandish prediction from 1988. TV as a form of entertainment won&#x27;t survive much past 2040 (I think linear TV will still be going in 10 years time, but probably not 30).