[Closed] Bye bye shipping forecast and TMS*?

Or maybe the BBC just spunking up money on way to highly paid managers and directors - and wasting tax payers money? There is nothing wrong with running it like a business - because it is one.

Does this mean that some of the more highbrow content that used to be on BBC2 might come back to replace endless garden and cookery shows? Or just disappear completely.

still available on bbc sounds, however dab/mobile signal not available everywhere

Exactly, that's the whole point of putting the Shipping Forecast on LW. I do hope they don't get rid of it; I've sent them a message to ask.

Does shipping still rely on the shipping forecast though? I'd have thought that there'd be no end of technological doohickeys that did that kind of thing now.

(Genuine Q)

technological doohickeys

That can fail when LW does not.

Or maybe the BBC just spunking up money on way to highly paid managers and directors

They are almost certainly overpaying lots of managers, but it's still mad to move the kids' channel online only (IMO).

Or was that your point?

Sadly, our institutions are being eroded because of an endless stream of tax evading culture warriors convincing people that the BBC is

spunking up money on way to highly paid managers and directors – and wasting tax payers money

It's also massively infuriating that they're moving CBBC online - it's currently "linear TV", i.e. kids sit and watch one programme after another. For my 9-year-old this is quite calming, and also introduces programmes he wouldn't otherwise seek out which often broaden his interests and literally inform, educate and entertain.

Everything online has algorithm-driven suggestions and tends to funnel viewers (especially kids?) into just watching a limited range of shows, and encourages watching one episode after another, after another. CBBC is currently carefully scheduled to be varied.

This is a really terrible choice for CBBC.

We found CBBC very helpful for installing bed time routine in our son (or does this not include CBeebies)

THat would be completely gone + as well the varied nature of the schedule

It’s also massively infuriating that they’re moving CBBC online – it’s currently “linear TV”, i.e. kids sit and watch one programme after another.

This is a really terrible choice for CBBC.

I'm not sure there's anything in that article that suggests the linear nature will change - just that it'll be on iPlayer (as it is already) rather than broadcast live over the airwaves.

it’s currently “linear TV”

It may very well still be linear, just accessible only from iPlayer (you can watch 'live telly' on iPlayer)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/cbbc

Everything online has algorithm-driven suggestions and tends to funnel viewers (especially kids?) into just watching a limited range of shows, and encourages watching one episode after another, after another. CBBC is currently carefully scheduled to be varied.

Are you sure it will change? I read the article as saying that CBBC will simply be moved online only.
If they have a CBBC 'channel' on iPlayer will it simply deliver online what would have been sent over the air?

Does shipping still rely on the shipping forecast though? I’d have thought that there’d be no end of technological doohickeys that did that kind of thing now.

(Genuine Q)

Yes and no.

About as far back as 1985 there was a text based system called navtex which broadcast on MW (about 200 miles offshore) which provided the shipping forecast. Receivers (originally a dot matrix printer, now a LCD screen) cost a couple of hundred quid, and you got weather forecast and any other warnings.

So in those terms it's been obsolete for almost 4 decades. And there's even talk of navtex bring switched off now.

And for commercial offshore vessels that will long have been superseded that by satellite internet and subscriptions to better forecasts.

Still feels like a loss though. Even if the only people using it are recreational sailors.

There's also a difficult to quantify safety case for it, as alluded to above a LW radio is always going to be more reliable than just about any other form of communication. At some point somewhere there'll be a fishing boat lost in a strom because its expensive doodahh that provided weather forecasts via satellite died and there wasn't a backup.

Does shipping still rely on the shipping forecast though? I’d have thought that there’d be no end of technological doohickeys that did that kind of thing now.

Even if the only people using it are recreational sailors.

That's the group I'm thinking of, small boat sailors, kayakers (me!) and small professional users like creel fishermen. There are indeed lots of high and even medium tech comms if you have the money to buy them and the space to put them in the boat. Cellphone reception along the coast can be quite limited due to cliffs etc.

At some point somewhere there’ll be a fishing boat lost in a strom because its expensive doodahh that provided weather forecasts via satellite died and there wasn’t a backup.

Please explain what the shipping forecast has to do with navigation at sea?

Please explain what the shipping forecast has to do with navigation at sea?

You wouldn't head home if you don't know it's coming.

Doesn't mean you're lost!

(And nowadays anything vaguely big is known about days in advance)

I suspect the vast majority of people get the marine forecast either online or via VHF.
The BBC shipping forecast is a relic - albeit a nice one.

Doesn’t mean you’re lost!

Not sure he meant that kind of lost....infact it's plainly obvious he didn't mean navigational lost

Gutted that r4ex is going online only as I often listen in the car. I am in Shetland at the moment and mobile data in very variable.

infact it’s plainly obvious he didn’t mean navigational lost

Probably shouldn't have used the word 'lost' then!

Anyway, I bet the number of people primarily using the shipping forecast to make decisions is vanishingly small compared to all the alternative sources of {probably more accurate} information.
I'm a recreational sailor (in that I don't get paid for it, but I've raced keelboats all over Europe for about 40 years) - not once have I been on a boat where we'd use the shipping forecast for weather info.

If you really need the forecast then get on the VHF (and there's usually more than one on board) - it's broadcast about every 3 hours if I remember correctly.

Please explain what the shipping forecast has to do with navigation at sea?

There are two definitions of the word 'lost' with regard to vessels at sea, and only one of them has anything to do with navigation. The one to do with visiting the sea bed is in very common parlance.

Although I do agree that the shipping forecast is less relevant than it was. Not all small vessels operating outside of mobile data coverage have gmdss/natex equipment though. And unless you rarely venture outside of the solent you probably don't appreciate the relatively short range of VHF.

Probably shouldn’t have used the word ‘lost’ then!

Struggling to understand why. context is everything as you so kindly point out by suggesting that the shipping forecast has nowt to do with navigation....it suggests your just being aukward but none the less wrong.

I suspect the vast majority of people get the marine forecast either online or via VHF

Most of the time you can, but when you're somewhere remote like Mingulay, it's LW or nothing.

I’ve raced keelboats all over Europe for about 40 years) – not once have I been on a boat where we’d use the shipping forecast for weather info.

Maybe sea kayaking is different to sailing, because your overnight stops are often in a bay and there's no VHF or phone signal. It's 40 years since I sailed, but the shipping forecast was normal on the West coast of Scotland then.

When I was working on a ship we always listened to the forecast and yes we had computers etc etc. So much nicer having a calm voice telling you that you may have the crap kicked out of you rather than reading it off a screen. It was about 15 years, ago we were all over the Hebredies so not always on line and it was always nice when someone rang you up to say they'd just listened to the forecast and were thinking of you.

@bruce, me too, it's my go-to when 6Music becomes unbearable.