ffutures: (marcus 2013)
ffutures ([personal profile] ffutures) wrote2016-05-22 03:14 pm
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Keep the BBC's recipe archive on line

The BBC has been talking about taking down its huge archive of recipes from cooking programs etc, there's a petition I've joined that might interest others:

https://www.change.org/p/bbc-save-the-bbc-s-recipe-archive
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[identity profile] gonzo21.livejournal.com 2016-05-22 02:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't understand why taking this database offline is going to save money. Surely the only costs involved are the hosting costs? And for a corporation like the BBC, I'd have imagined their cost to host stuff on the internet was negligable in the big picture.

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2016-05-22 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Your guess is as good as mine.

[identity profile] uk-sef.livejournal.com 2016-05-23 07:51 am (UTC)(link)
1. The hosting side has actually been extremely difficult for the BBC to manage, in various ways (judging by what I've seen of it through the noughties); and they really would have a far higher hit rate than most companies. They've been slashing (or off-loading) their various service offerings hugely for years precisely because those were the things being used.*

2. There was also more of a pay-per-view recipe site to which the existing data would be transferred. Hence a deliberate attempt to monetise it.

3. Meanwhile, many interviewees said they didn't buy cookbooks any more (see other comment stream below); they just "googled" or equivalent, including BBC searches, for anything they wanted. So that physical monetisation route is largely shut down now.

4. They keep being accused of being too good (though sometimes that's a ridiculously false claim!) and driving competitors out of the market (eg the commercial TV channels).*

* This combination of course is the complete reverse of what many normal people want - which is for a publicly owned corporation to be the first and best one-stop-shop there is for public data and services, such that there's either no point in privately owned stuff at all or it is continually forced to step up to the challenge of actually being better. (NB The BBC also has a bunch of issues around wanting to pretend to be the best without bothering to really put the work in any more - mostly because the quality of its current staff is lower than the originals while feeling a lot more "entitled").

[identity profile] gonzo21.livejournal.com 2016-05-23 10:41 am (UTC)(link)
Ah okay, that makes sense. Close the free part, keep the monetised part.

But yes I've been hearing this 'too good' argument quite often now, that the BBC are so amazingly awesome it's not fair on the commercial broadcasters because they just can't compete. Which is... painfully hilarious if that's the best argument Murdoch/Sky could come up with.

[identity profile] heather mccrillis (from livejournal.com) 2016-05-22 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm confused about why no one there has thought of selling cookbooks with the most popular recipes to help fund some of the cost of the archives.

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2016-05-23 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
They've done cook-books associated with various cooking shows. My guess why they don't do a more general cook book would be royalties issues; with a single show they only have to worry about cutting a deal with one or two celebrity chefs, usually as part of the contract to make the show, with a less specific book you might be looking paying royalties to a different chef for every recipe, without a prior contract, and that gets expensive fast.

Lots of other reasons; for example, there are still a lot of Fanny Craddock's recipes there, and she died in 1994 so you'd be looking at dealing with her estate - which is problematic because her rather odd marital history (see Wikipedia) makes it far from clear who is actually entitled to any royalties.

[identity profile] twinfair.livejournal.com 2016-05-23 10:09 am (UTC)(link)
I have been puzzled with the outcry over the recipes. They are a nice thing to have but there are good alternatives as well (and it seems they are now going to transfer a lot to their Good Food site so maybe a victory for the petition). I am certain the BBC announced this to get a reaction so they can go to the government and say stop meddling with us.

My concern is this bit:

"Local news indexes for more than 40 geographical areas in England will also cease to exist.

But the BBC will continue to offer a rolling Local Live service. The BBC's Travel website is also facing the axe."

I think the rolling news is more a live update which I hate as it often doesn't work and it runs like a dog on my old PC. I am not sure what the "News Index" is but if it is local headlines that you can set on the BBC website, I will miss that a lot and think that should be the concentration of complaints. BBC Travel is also a very good site as well although there are alternatives (the AA or RAC for example).
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