Letters Have it C4

There are man people who support the need for Live Feed, one of its biggest champions is oathy who posts at DSBB. When oathy started the following thread: We really need youre help Get in touch with C4 please with it's link to the C4 Viewer Enquiry page I thought it would be worthwhile to take action and see what response I got from C4.

Here is what I sent them

Dear C4 can you explain to me why you show constant repeats of Friends
during the daytime on E4 whilst BB10 is on? Surely we should be seeing Live
Feed from the house as we usually do? Regards Fay

I got the usual auro reply saying that someone would get back to me, they did with the following:

Dear Ms Kinnet,

Thank you for your email regarding FRIENDS.

We appreciate your feedback regarding our scheduling and have noted and
logged your suggestions. However there are no plans to screen the live feed
during the day at this time.

FRIENDS is a consistently popular programme and continues to be an important
part of our daytime schedules.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us here at Channel 4 and for
your interest in our programming.

Regards,

Noah Sinclair
Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries

I responded with the following:

Hi Noah
If Friends is so popular why does almost everyone I know complain that E4 are showing yet more repeats of friends? (I wonder what the viewing figures are for them?) By the same token almost everyone I know is complaining about the lack of Live Feed during the day
Regards
Fay

Note that I have not mentioned a Red Button at any point in the above correspondence, which is why I was so appalled to recieve the following:

Dear Ms Kinnet,

Thank you for contacting Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries regarding BIG BROTHER
10.

We were sorry to read that you are unhappy with our previous responses to
your comments concerning the red button 24-hour streaming facility.

We do feel that we have clearly stated Channel 4's position and that we have
done our best to assist you. Therefore, we regret that we are unable to
enter into any further correspondence on this subject.

Again, we do thank you for taking the time to write to us.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us.

Regards,

Jane Morgan
Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries

So far I haven't had a response to my follow up email:

Dear Ms Morgan
I'm sorry I do not understand this response. Where and when did I mention a red button? You could at least have the courtesy to read my correspondance before deciding that you no longer wish to respond to me. If this is how Channel 4 treat their viewers then I am truly appalled!

I won't hold my breath for a reply! Do please leave a comment if you get better customer service from C4 than I got.

Channel 4 defend live feed axing

And it confirms nothing except Channel 4's determined and stubborn attitude against listening to the fans of the show:

'Day 24: Channel 4 has defended their decision to axe the live feed, insisting that the removal of the service has not affected the curent series.
The 24 hour live feed service was removed by Channel 4 earlier this year, sparking many complaints from fans of the show. Despite viewing figures falling to just 1.6 million for last night’s eviction, Channel 4 insist that the change has not affected the show’s popularity.'

Full article from Inside Big Brother website

As the final comment on Channel 4's statement that they have received a small number of complaints on this issue - 2 petitions were created by fans, one had over 3K sigs when it was defaced by a 'troll' and had to be removed, the second was building towards 1.5K sigs and has suddenly become unavailable. I will say no more.........

Daily Star story: FANS' VICTORY AS BIG BRO TO GO LIVE AGAIN

You'd imagine that I would be Whooping and cheering madly BUT......... in fact this is merely an attention grabbing headline. The truth is Channel 4 have no intention of reinstating live feed [at all] in my opinion.

"Last night the Daily Star confronted Channel 4 over the ratings and the live feed issue. We asked if bosses would now reconsider their decision about the streaming. And they admitted the matter will be looked into again for next year." Full article

So should I abandon hope? Not one bit of it - I hope that the continued pressure from dissatisfied viewers who are expressing themselves clearly - by turning off, not voting, writing emails, voting in polls and discussing all the events in places like the Digital Spy Forum will eventually MAKE C4 bosses see sense.

C4 have made an awful lot of money from BB over the past 9 years, and they need to be reminded that its the fans that make the show successful. If they continue to disregard and disrespect them it will be at their peril.

Channel 4 was hopeful that the Digital Britain report would recommend 'top-slicing' the TV license funding to prop up their activities - but only got a commitment to further negotiations on the issue. I'm guessing that they are now hoping to demonstrate their worthiness to receive this funding - so is letting Channel 4's flagship show sink under a welter of complaints going to serve a useful purpose?

Wake up C4 bosses - it's you that should abandon hope.

The Neptune Effect - Deception and Delusion

Before the series started this year I decided I would not be watching for a few reasons.

One was C4's draconian attitude to the dedicated fans who uploaded clips to YouTube. For years C4 ignored said clips because they freely advertised the show. Before this current series started they blocked us UK viewers from watching any such clips, hoping instead that we would view their ad-filled YT channel. Wrong C4, I avoid your YT channel like the plague!

Two is of course the Live Feed issue, how can we judge the housemates when the only things we get to see are the housemates sleeping and the highly edited highlight show?

Three is the axing of the excellent Dairy Room Uncut program and reducing BBBM to a once-a-week mockery of what it once was.

Those who know me know I am an astrologer, BB lends itself excellently to astrology when watching the HMs via the media listed above. Every year I would do a 'start of series' chart and often found it gave an overview of the way the series would be perceived and hints of the eventual winner. Weekly, with varying levels of success I would do an eviction chart to try and predict who would be evicted.

This year all that I could do was the start of series chart. This I did and shared with a few online friends before the show started. I only drew brief conclusions from the chart, this is what I said at the time; "It is not a portentious chart for the start of the series. None of these planets are well placed, the moon is in fall, the sun, mercury, jupiter, saturn all have no essential dignity. Venus is in detriment but does have 'face (slight dignity). Jupiter, chart ruler is conjunct Neptune. It's all an illusion! There'll be confusion, corruption and, fakery, and I'm not sure how, but possibly even something fraudulent. Quite possible the eventual winner will be someone who is religious, spiritual or artistic, probably female.


So is it fraudulent in some manner? Who can say, but there are murmurings that allegedly C4 may be indulging in a bit of product placement via the highlight show.




I am not accusing C4 of such doings but they have been caught out doing similar before now as this link shows http://www.campaignlive.com/news/490031/Ofcom-fines-C4-product-placement/

That was 2005, in 2008 they were considering signing up to work on a code to permit product placement and now in 2009 they are saying they support the product placement ban

So it's over to you folks, I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions. Just one more thing, Astrologers will note the emphasis on Neptune ruled Pisces in the chart, Pisces rules feet.

Eviction Day

I mita known it was; there is a great ruffling of feathers and no one knows what they are doing.
Angel is borrowing Lisa's lipstick(wow) and Freddie (Halfwit) has asked Angel if he can borrow her top hat.

Angel has decided she likes the new design that Charlie helped her with and has asked him to throw water all over her before she leaves the house. Angel is sure she is going to be evicted. Angel has asked Freddie if he will help her with the speech for her interview as she feels her English is not good enough.

Freddie has asked Savash to join his crew, Savash has decined at the moment as he feels this 'Freddie' boat might sink. Freddie just sighs and starts talking to himself.

The thing is who will know about these things, we cannot see them and they are gems for BB avid fans. We want to see Freddie in his top hat and Charlie throw water over Angel, at her behest I might add, it makes the whole thing seem real.

Live Feed is for me the chicken said.

It's Eviction Day

Tonight a dwindling number of the GBP will choose to evict either Halfwit (Freddy) or Angel. Davina will be ramping up the excitement, the 'baying mob' will be slavering for the next victim. The time-honoured phrase will exort viewers to give Channel 4 more revenue 'Who goes? You decide....... '

I think an alternative phrase is more accurate 'Who goes? No-one really cares..........'

I finally watched the 'live' nominations show, and in my view was contrived and false. Everything seemed rehearsed and fake. The hm's nvc (non verbal comms) was all wrong for a start - no tension, no exchanges of those telling looks, reasons for nominations sounded 'scripted' and too similar to each other, little or no reaction to the announcement. Would I spend any money to evict either of these hm's? Not a chance........

You see without livefeed I haven't any ability to make a judgement on whether the above scene was true or false.

BRING BACK LIVEFEED and restore the REALITY in reality TV

I mita have been seen as a quiet person who would normally go along with most things.

I however do not go along with the decision that has been made for me with regards the Live Feed during the day. Or should I say the lack of Live Feed during the day.

I want the daytime Live Feed reinstated.

Noddy and Big Ears talking in the gaar-den

Big Ears: You funny little Noddy. Why are you so upset about a TV show?

Noddy: Because I used to look forward to summertime - sunshine, days at the beach, lovely flowers in the garden and Big Brother on the telly. [sob] now all I see when I switch on is repeats of repeats and the only BB live feed is on too late for me - boo hoo hoo

Big Ears [evil grin]: But you can you still see all your favorite action by going on that new-fangled interwebby thingy

Noddy: [confused] I don't like to watch all that advertising, why can't they just switch on the live feed again?

Big Ears: Well that would be telling, wouldn't it little man?

Noddy: [more confused] What do you mean?

.......want to find out more? So do I ! ! !

Man the life (feed) boats.......she's going down!

Abandon Ship?

Tuesday 09 June 2009 | | 2.19 million viewers

Tuesday 16 June 2009 | | 2.15 million viewers
Tuesday 23 June 2009 | | 1.88 million viewers

LATEST UPDATE: Weds 24 June 09 Live nominations ratings 1.7 million

Source: http://www.insidebigbrother.net/ratings.ibb

At this point in the show last year approximately 3.6 million viewers were tuning in. In the absence of icebergs, what has gone wrong?

Well ;) I think you can guess my answer to that............

Why all the fuss about live feed?

Hi folks, I'd like to share why I feel 24/7 live feed is such an important part of the Big Brother experience.

Firstly, like many fans, I want to make my own mind up about the housemates - and the highlights show doesn't provide enough to allow us to see what they're really like. What is shown tends to focus on ;) the highlights and any necessary footage to enable viewers to understand events. This means that many housemates tend to become invisible and are then dubbed as dull or boring. Remember Rachel last year? it was only when she featured in a big row with Sexy Rexy that she became popular - but live feed viewers had already warmed to her character long before that and liked the way she dealt with conflict situations, her quietly supportive attitude towards Mikey and her sense of fun. Not everyone agreed with my reading of her character I'm sure - and that was half the attraction. The feeling that I could see more clearly what a housemate was really like. So Live Feed lets fans get to know all the housemates in a much deeper, meaningful way. And because we know them better, we connect and care about them more.

Secondly, live feed stimulated lots of discussion, both in the press, on forums and it added excitement and interest. I would rush to tune in when there had been a bit of barney the night before to see how things were the next morning. I could watch the other housemates reactions. No, I didn't watch 24/7 (who could?) but I was a keen follower of the live update thread on Channel 4 forums. It meant that I could always catch up on the day's events in the house so I didn't miss out on any of the developments and could find out the latest buzz. When nominations were announced to the house, you could either watch or read what happened next. Now I can't be bothered to watch nominations at all - and don't have any interest on who's up.

Lastly, I particularly miss the excitement of coming home on a Fridays' to watch the preparations inside the house: everyone primping, nominees pretending not to care, their allies rallying around them, and their 'enemies' ignoring them or giving insincere support. For me, the tension has completely gone from Eviction night - I haven't watched one this year apart from poor Benazir being sent home in a bus.

So that's my reasons for making a fuss - without live feed - it's not Big Brother, its not reality TV and its not worth watching

Channel 4 dither as Big Brother sinks

Channel 4 aren't known for their good judgement. They destroyed one of their most successful shows (Brookside) with a string of ill conceived decisions and now they're doing the same to Big Brother. Once the king of reality TV, it is now a fourth rate soap opera with a rapidly dwindling audience.

There are a number of reasons why BB has slumped in recent years. Sticking with the overpaid, under-talented Davina, for one. Channel 4 have constantly complained about their lack of funds - after all, that's why we have almost no live feed this year, according to them. And yet they can still find hundreds of thousands of pounds to pay Davina. Funny that.

BBLB - once a vital pre-watershed bit of fun presented by the effervescent Dermot O'Leary, now utterly pointless nonsense fronted by George 'frozen' Lamb, a man who clearly hates the show, its contestants, its fans and maybe even himself. They could have axed BBLB and used the money saved to keep the live feed going. Viewing figures of Little Brother are pitiful. Channel 4 claim they couldn't get rid of BBLB because its production was part of the contract they signed with Endemol - but I can't believe the latter wouldn't have been open to discussion if it meant saving BBUK from its current fate.

Big Mouth - unexpectedly became a huge hit when presented by Russell Brand, this show is now appalling bilge and an excuse for every Equity chasing wannabe to air their 'talent'. Also presented by Davina, as if having to suffer her during live shows wasn't quite bad enough. This show now only airs once a week, but any money saved looks to have been squandered paying Davina a reported extra £100,000 for presenting duties. Good move, C4!

The excellent Big Ears radio show has gone. Diary Room Uncut has gone. The psych show (Big Brain/On The Couch) has gone. The live feed and ultimately the buzz has gone. Seems the only thing Channel 4 have kept is the things most of us aren't bothered about anyway. Good move, C4!

As an added bonus, even the eviction interview has been radically altered now. Evictees face a three person panel - Davina and two guests - guests who presumably are earning a good fee...and there goes a bit more money that could have been used to keep the live feed on air. The new panel format is largely unpopular with fans. The evictee isn't shown who nominated them. Suddenly you find there is almost no part of this show left worth watching any longer...

The Channel 4 forum, home to many thousands of dedicated fans, has also gone. Allegedly because it cost a huge amount of money to upkeep (er...OK). Nothing whatsoever to do with the numerous and constant complaints over the loss of daytime live feed posted there during the woeful CBB6, of course. Good move, C4!

But don't worry, although we have very little live feed now, Channel 4 promised us a great website for BB10. Plenty of up to date info and clips to assuage our live feed withdrawal. Except the website is worse than its ever been. The clips are a shabby attempt by C4 to boost their dwindling ad revenue, along with their partnership with YouTube. The site is clearly unmanned for more than half of the day. Updates are haphazard at best. And more and more people seem bored of it now, if the decreasing number of comments are anything to go by. Good move, C4!

Viewing figures have fallen below the 2 million mark several times already this series and we're not even 3 weeks into the 14 week run. Such pitiful ratings would have seemed unthinkable even as recently as BB9. Clearly the loss of the live feed has caused a huge number of fans to switch off, either on principle, through boredom, or both. The live feed isn't an optional extra, it's absolutely essential to the premise of Big Brother.

So, the obvious thing to do is to bring back the live feed, because clearly any savings C4 are making by not having the feed are being offset but the massive loss of viewers, not to mention credibility. Right? Wrong! Despite that fact that BB10 is looking increasingly like a decent series capable of drawing in large audiences with the right handling, Channel 4 are still adamant that they'd rather the show die than backtrack and admit they were wrong.

To add insult to injury, C4 won't even consider airing the daily quota of around six hours of live feed at times when people are actually likely to be watching (say 10am-midday, 6-8pm and for two hours immediately following the highlights show). Clearly there is something going on that they aren't telling us. But what?

Now, a swathe of twists and gimmicks are planned 'to boost ratings'. More money squandered pointlessly, more like. I wouldn't trust C4 with my petty cash, let alone tens of millions of pounds from the public purse - but that's what they're chasing. They refuse to listen to the GBP but want their money. They claim to be desperate to save their flagship show but refuse to do the one thing that might halt the alarming slide we've seen this year.

Will they see sense? Is it too late anyway?

Why aren't we getting Live Feed?

So C4 and Endemol in their wisdom have decided that 24 hour live feed is not essential to the success of Big Brother 10. So why are they losing so many viewers this year? A quick Google search for BB10 Live feed will quickly show that this is not the only protest.

Check out http://www.bringbacklivefeed.co.uk/ unconnected to this Blog but doing sterling work in advertising the fact that there is strong feeling about this issue.

Also check out the Live Feed thread at DSBB, this is the biggest thread this season, threads about the HMs are just dropping off the page and hardly reaching 3 figure replies.

People are switching off in their thousands... why? Simple, ther is no buzz without Live Feed, that buzz was what the media and fans picked up on. Obvoiusly there is nothing to pick up on this year. Such a shame that C4 seem to have given up on their nest egg.

More to follow......

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