[Closed] Have the BBC lost the plot?

Met Office comment [url= http://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2015/08/23/met-office-in-the-news-bbc-weather-contract/ ]http://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2015/08/23/met-office-in-the-news-bbc-weather-contract/[/url]

Piers Corbyn?

they iz skint*, innit ?

*relatively speaking, that is

I assume this decision is at least partially "aimed" at those who provide their funding

The met office will still be financed by public funds, but the BBC (public) will now also provide profits to a private tory friendly company. Isn't privatisation great.

Fox weather services.

I'm guessing the met office contract was vastly over-priced for what is a pretty basic forecast. Everyone else is probably using the US GFS data which is free

bbc forecast presentation is crap anyway so no loss there, a few Showers dotted about and it looks like rain set in for the day for the entire country*.

*possible hyperbole 😉

Given the money Gary bloody lineker gets paid, I'd say the plot sailed a while back.

The met office will still be financed by public funds, but the BBC (public) will now also provide profits to a private tory friendly company. Isn't privatisation great.

Yep, unless the costs of the met office goes down more than the fee they charged to the BBC the shortfall will have to be made by the taxpayer. Those of us who are TV licence paying tax payers are not getting any sort of saving from this. One (effective) government agency not using another one to provide a service that will have to be funded anyway and using a private company instead basically sucks.

Edit - TV forecasts lost the plot for me when they were dumbed down and pressure charts lost their prominence in favour of pictograms for idiots.

We have MET office forecasters at our place, I've never paid any attention to the TV weather reports.

It's very sad, a polital move, I suspect.

Cutting a few salaries would be preferable.

Does GBBO need Mel AND Sue for every episode?
Perhaps they could take turns?

Would be good if all posters could confirm whether they pay for a licence or not.
Ta.
And yes.

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The sooner the BBC gets dumped the better. And I'll to ignore the obscene payoffs and pensions the staff will get. I've not lined the pockets of the overpaid BBC presenters for a couple of years now.

Why can't they provide proper coverage of sporting events? Athletics...they spend time chatting in the studio until either a british or a winning competitor is on and miss out the vast majority of the action. It's utter crap.

Haha, we have a variant as a door stop at work. Weather Brick. But this is a polished and far better one! 😆

Makes perfect sense, we can all get met office weather forecasts for 'free' (we've already paid for them) why have the BBC pay for them twice.

Would be good if all posters could confirm whether they pay for a licence or not.

I pay and am happy to pay, but it's a TV license not a Met Office license.

Makes perfect sense, we can all get met office weather forecasts for 'free' (we've already paid for them) why have the BBC pay for them twice.

Did you actually think that through before posting? Go on, give it a go - it might hurt a bit!

Clue- will the BBC get their new service for free from some benevolent private company?

The BBC weather forecast (for my area at least) is generally pants (yes - I mean the forecast - I'm not blaming them for the actual weather 🙂 ). If that's provided by the Met Office then I can see why they'd dump them in favour of someone else. We might even get them on a more accurate map of the UK as a result.

I'm sure the MET office will be tendering along with all the other bidders, that is unless negotiations have already broken down.

Presenters, possibly they would be tuped over to the new supplier?

The BBC weather forecast (for my area at least) is generally pants (yes - I mean the forecast - I'm not blaming them for the actual weather ). If that's provided by the Met Office then I can see why they'd dump them in favour of someone else.

The forecast would be quite detailed, however the way the information is interpreted and delivered is aimed at the lowest common denominator. if you live near an airfield/aerodrome, learning about TAFs and METARs and getting one of the many free apps would give you much more detailed information.

So far the Norwegian's are predicting weather more accurately for me in the UK.

Really?
Ours is usually excellent:

Summer - rain, occaisional sunny periods.
Possible wintry showers.
Winter - Snow, wintry showers, possible rain.

I'm sure the MET office will be tendering along with all the other bidders,

They did. They lost. That's what the news article is about.

Why would anyone pay any attention to the BBC weather forecast? The met forecast is a click away.

It doesn't matter who gets the contract. TV weather reports are so vague and generalised it won't make a shred of difference.

You need to get yourself a Norwegian weather stone then Matt 😉

if you live near an airfield/aerodrome, learning about TAFs and METARs and getting one of the many free apps would give you much more detailed information.

Really? The one for where I am is spot on. Maybe it's just particular forecasters, we have quite a good team at my place so they're usually on the money. But then, the MOD does pay a handsome sum for their services.

I don't watch TV but occasionally watch the video of the forecast on the bbc weather page. I do however really like the bbc weather app. I find it's local forecasts and frequency of updating updated pretty accurate in the short term.

Not bothered with met office for years. Norwegians and others provide much better accurate and detailed forecasts. Met office been lagging for some time. BBC stuff is weather for dummies.

There's a term I forget now for criticism of things like weather forecasts for being inaccurate. Lots of studies show the human condition is to focus on when we feel let down and forget about the majority of the time when it is spot on. We fixate to on the 'failure' irrationally. Apparently it quite a British thing for certain persoanality types - ones predesposed to depression and blaming others. Is that you Mr Routes?

Convert, true. But for some people a poor forecast can have pretty disastrous consequences in the extreme, or just a lot of time and effort wasted as a minimum.

The BBC have a massive hole in their finances - they're going to have to absorb licence fee costs for over 75s for a start. They are cost cutting all over (e.g. BBC3 going digital only).

Norwegian weather service for me, plus rainfall radar/predictions from Met office. Oh, AccuWeather premium on the phone, predicts when rain will start/end to the minute - pretty accurate too.

try living in a country without the BBC.

the standard of everything is shite.

politician on telly 'everythings going great minister, but why don't you tell us how great your future plans are?'

Really? The one for where I am is spot on. Maybe it's just particular forecasters, we have quite a good team at my place so they're usually on the money. But then, the MOD does pay a handsome sum for their services.

Most TAFs for civil airports are produced remotely. The presence of a TAF doesn't automatically mean local forecasters.

Ah, I see. I guess I'm used to being spoilt. Just been checking out a Norwegian app, I'm impressed.

Everyone else is probably using the US GFS data which is free

That's why everyone else is rubbish. If anyone has any actual stats showing that someone else is better than the met office I'd like to see them.

If you think yr.no is better, get your spreadsheet out and prove it. I think I will do it for Cardiff.

Bring it on!

Weather forecasts wide me up much more than they should really. They start with reporting the weather we've already had - I was either there and already know or wasn't there so it doesn't matter, then move on to a poorly structured trip around the uk.

"It'll be raining in Norwich at 1300hrs on Tuesday, snowy in Carlisle at 1700hrs on Wednesday and getting back to earlier today in Manchester..."

So I don't really care where they get their base data from as the forecasts are crap regardless.

Still, at least they've yet to start standing with their back to us swiping a pretendy giant iPad like their sports update counterparts.

And relax!

With all the channels available now...why do we STILL have to pay for a TV licence ?......I don't even watch bbc....now top gear has gone

So I don't really care where they get their base data from as the forecasts are crap regardless.

For me, the TV forecasts are the best. They are where you get the gist of what the weather is doing. They'll say something like "a band of showers moving NE in the afternoon weakening" and that's what I can take away. It's just not possible to say "it will be raining until 3pm in Cardiff" with that much certainty some days but people still expect that. If you do, you are bound to be disappointed. The TV forecast is where they give you the human interpretation which is vital.

With all the channels available now...why do we STILL have to pay for a TV licence ?......I don't even watch bbc....now top gear has gone

Same reason we have to pay taxes to fund the NHS even if we haven't been to hospital.

The MET Office gets plenty cash from our taxes anyway. Should manage without cash from the BBC. Govt funding up 15% in the last 5 yrs to 187M.

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/no-austerity-for-the-met-office/

The BBC forecast always seems more accurate than the shipping and aviation forecasts we pay for at work.

bbc forecaster
"heavy rain for the country today"
reality
"london gets rain"
bbc forecaster
"sunny day today..."
reality
"sunny in london"
bbc forecaster
"a serious met office red alert warning for the uk"
reality
"a snowflake drop on london"