The world view of Big Brother

There are six special pan-regional versions of Big Brother. All these follow the normal Big Brother rules with the exception that contestants must come from each of the different countries in the region where it airs:

• Africa: Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania,Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• Former Yugoslav Republics: Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro.
• Arab States: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria and Tunisia.
• Pacific: Chile, Ecuador and Peru
• Scandinavia: Norway and Sweden.
• United Kingdom and Ireland: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland
• The USA Version is slightly different and did not follow the Endemol format from Series 2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(TV_series)

Key points about the format are as as follows: 
A group of volunteers living together under continuous observation are gradually voted out over a period of weeks.  The public choose who to vote out from a subset of that group selected by the group themselves.  The public have a chance to observe the group and decide who they wish to evict based on that observation.
The series is notable for involving the Internet. Although the show typically broadcasts daily updates in the evening (which are sometimes criticized for their heavy editing), viewers can also watch a continuous, 24-hour feed from multiple cameras on the web. These websites were highly successful, even after some national series started charging for access to the video stream.

Nobody has yet given up live streaming (possibly subject to a delay for legal reasons) apart from Jeff Ford and the apologists at Channel 5.  Other countries, notably the USA have added a Social Media interaction as well, but they have used it to increase viewer share for the regular coverage and live streaming (10% increase). 

Everybody is watching Live Feed - except the UK.  But that decision was not made in consultation with the users; it was a unilateral decision by those who seem to know little about what keeps the show in schedules worldwide.  Having decided to make a mistake there seems little to dissuade them from learning and changing.  The world decides (based upon experience) that Live Feed is necessary and Channel 5 decides it is not.  Their reasons for this conversion on the road to Damascus seems to have been the partial information from Channel 4 that viewer numbers were decreasing.  What Channel 4 failed to put into the public domain was that the reasons for that were largely their decision to place less and less information into the Live Streams.  They quoted legal issues but in truth the first reason was that they got burned in the Shilpa Shetty incident and never recovered their nerve.  Their early involvement with controversy with 'PJ and the BJ' and Stuart under the table with Miss Bass faded into inconsequential footnotes once the very righteous GBP and the Press got on their high horses as never before after a British Institution revealed her more unpleasant side.  
Another reason was that they wanted to withhold Live Stream content to provide the main show with story-lines.  They also did not wish the main show version of events to be in conflict with the actual chronology of the action watched, and often recorded, by the Live Feed watchers.  Channel 4 showed less and people watched less.  In the words of the loathsome Meerkat - "schimples".  This was never a sensible reason to remove the main plank of the show's existence all over the world.  But it is the only reason advanced so far by the dogmatic and determined Mr Ford.

Can Big Brother survive?

1. Can it be as big as it was?
2. Can it survive at all under the present ownership with or without changes?

Can it be as big as it was?
The world has changed.  BB was new and exciting. Over the years it changed in what it offered and in what the viewers expected.  As a consequence its share of viewers fell over time.  There is more choice now. 
Can it be as big?  Not a chance.

Can it survive at all?  That depends.
If they don't change it cannot survive.  The reason is simple.  Big Brother has always been more than just a rat cage with performing rats in it.  Channel 5 seem to have missed the interaction with the public that made the show what it was in UK and the world.  Little Brother and Big Mouth, Diary Room Uncut, Psychiatrists plus the live feeds and specials all formed part of that Big Brother Experience for us.  They talked about their experience and we talked about ours.  We felt we owned the programme and for much of the time that was partially true.  We could communicate with the programme providers through the various doorways they provided us with.  We felt that someone recognised that without us the programme would not exist as it was.

That was the truth, here in the UK and throughout the world thanks to Endemol.  They have a vested interest in the success of the brand.  They should not let a team of rank amateurs lose the plot and the goodwill that kept the programme alive.  The money that CH5 gave to Endemol was enough to ensure that BB returned in the UK for one more year but it does not seem to have purchased the wisdom born of experience.

Looking at the show now some four weeks in, it is obvious that there was a fundamental lack of understanding of BB in the team who were selected to bring it to our screens.  From what we see of the tasks it looks like there are still good ideas being brought to the show but what is the point of that if nobody watches?  And nobody will watch because the audience numbers will drift on downwards, then the advertisers will withdraw their funding and then the show will be pulled.


The only way that the show will survive is if they hold a crisis meeting, bring back live feed, bring back real audience participation and generate the goodwill which they are losing with every day they maintain this arrogant and ignorant approach to the very people who can make the show a success.  Success is not measured by the numbers of tasks won, the shopping budgets awarded, the misery heaped upon the rat cage of massive egos and little ability.  It is measured by how much we like it and then how much we watch it and how we celebrate it with our parties and how we talk about it to colleagues.  And it is even measured by how much we vote.

Here is the news Mr Ford.  You choose not to hear us and we will choose to ignore you.  On that basis your show cannot survive.  Time is running out Mr Ford.  The dole queue for unsuccessful producers of TV programmes beckons.

The changes to voting that will be introduced

There is little doubt that CH5 intend that the Social Media interaction will be used to enhance vote numbers.  According to some reports CH5 'squandered'  money that could have been and should have been used for LF on 'FB Apps' & probably 'Twitter Apps'.  They have yet to show anything on FB or Twitter that looks remotely new so it seems probable that the Apps in question are to do with voting.

Presuming that is the case the question must be why?
Its a fair bet that voting numbers have been sliding for years and yet they (votes) are the best revenue stream: All they do is put up a phone number and people give them money.  To justify their costs so far they need a good solid vote stream, but they cannot expect to get it with the amount of TV coverage they are providing so they have to think that we can be 'encouraged' to vote more easily via FB/Twitter.

Perhaps they imagine that we can be whipped into a voting frenzy by all the brilliant pro-BB conversations we are having on FB.  Their experience so far with a large percentage of responders asking for Live Feed and the majority of the rest complaining about that activity, can hardly have been what they imagined.
Perhaps they think that they can provide a secure on-line voting system that will not be as financially painful as text and phone voting.  That seems unlikely though as does the concept of them providing cheaper votes.  So far it hasn't happened and I don't think it will.
Perhaps they think that a mob mentality will consume us and we will all discuss doing block voting to ensure our favourite makes it.

So where are they now?
They think we will vote more easily and perhaps in some sort of 'team voting' brought on by collective BB hysteria.  If that is it they are wasting their time and have never analysed the difference in reality between those who say they are voting on the forums and those who are actually putting their hands in their pockets.

Looks like CH5 are in for a rude awakening when they start counting the receipts regardless of new apps or not.  You cannot get blood out of a stone and you certainly cannot get voting money out of stoney hearted (long term and bitter about the lack of Live Feed) BB fans.

NB. From FB
Slack Alice 

I was told it only costs 7p to vote now. That is pretty disappointing as it means that every time I don't vote now I only save 7p and not 35p. I will have to not vote 5 times as often to make the same saving.

Interesting point though.  Do they think that reducing the cost per vote to 7p (80% reduction) will result in more votes?  If it only gets them 5 times as many votes then financially they are no better off than they were before.  I suspect that the actual voting figures are Commercial in Confidence (and extremely depressing reading as well)

From Heatworld:
TheBig Brother voting app will be powered by Facebook Credits, which can be purchased via the FB payment tab in Account Settings or from the BB Vote app on the Big Brother Facebook page. Each vote will cost no more than 7pence. Still with us? Good. Here’s so more info…

Facebook Credits are available from as little as £1.00, or you can choose to purchase larger bundles of Facebook Credits and save money with a discounted rate. Throughout the run of Big Brother 2011, Facebook Credits can be used whenever housemates are up for eviction and the standard voting lines are open. Viewers will be able to place up to 500 votes per eviction.

Jeff Ford, Director of Programmes at Channel 5 is particularly exited, “Thanks to this integration with Facebook, we are able to provide Big Brother fans with the opportunity to vote via Facebook - a first in UK broadcasting. Big Brother is the sort of show that works extremely well in conjunction with social media platforms, and this app will allow fans to get even more involved in the show.”

So each FB account can spend 7p x 500 per eviction = £35.  Obviously if punters have 10 FB accounts they can spend a potential £350 *lol*
Good luck Mr Gorsky

Update 2:

Viewers can buy bundles of Credits which will allocate them a certain number of votes. 
10 Facebook Credits buys 12 votes and costs 63p, while 
20 Credits buys 24 votes at £1.26; 
40 Credits buy 50 votes at £2.53, and 
80 Credits buys 100 votes at £5.06.

Channel 5 try Big Brother and the viewers patience

Channel 5 try Big Brother

Nice story in the Huffington Post by Kit Marsters Click the Link above ^^^

Channel 5 is convinced that prioritising social media is the way to get people involved in the show, despite the fact that negative comments are quickly removed from the dedicated Facebook page, with members complaining they've been blocked and even banned from Facebook altogether as a result of posting polite criticism or requests for live streaming. Viewing figures will tell if Channel 5 is correct.

In the meantime we will tell Ch5 that they are wrong.  

The value and meaning of Social Media

• The value and meaning of Social Media

 Its an extra.  Something that you add to something that is working already. 

But be warned, Ch4 had their own forum for years and it degenerated into a bear pit.  The Ch4 managers treated us as lepers and we despised them.  The costs of running the service were probably very high and in the end they ran away.
Why you have formed the view that this constant rain of FB posts/videos/polls is entertainment is a source of amazement. 

In brief, Social Media should add value.  Your FB (with every post that asks for Live Feed or criticizes Ch5 removed, sometimes in their hundreds at a pass) or Twitter (where Tweets disappear without trace) don't add value.  Your video clips consist largely of advertisements.
No dissent is tolerated.  Social Media is interactive and 2 way.  If you don't want to hear what we have to say, don't pretend its a dialogue.

What should be dropped?

• What should be dropped.

Your attitude Ch5 BB.  Your public management skills are non-existent and your every pronouncement reeks of arrogance.  Either you are being poorly advised, poorly briefed, misquoted OR you are arrogant.
You may think you are dealing with a vociferous minority who don't know what's best for them but we are the most articulate and determined subset of your audience and we have been watching BB for far longer than you have being playing games of producing it.  We understand the manipulation of audiences and we accept some of it as part of the game.  What we dont accept is your flagrant disregard of what it is that actually makes the programme work.
It works because we watch it and study the people and understand them, probably better than they do themselves.  We observe them, all the nuances, body language, verbal language, inter-relationships, habits & skills.  That is why we like the programme.  Don't tell us that the way forward for BB is social media.  It is no substitute for Live Feed.  It never will be.  But Live Feed is what makes the programme work.  It is pure arrogance to tell us that we are wrong and you are right.

You change your attitude and we will cheer up and even help the show along by talking positively about it.

What should be carried forward?

• What should be carried forward?

Live Feed.  
The house.
Live Feed.  
Marcus
Live Feed.     
BBLB with George
Live Feed.  
Emma if you must but she struggles in that environment and would be better off with George. 
Live Feed. 
Russell Brand BBBM.
Live Feed.  
Brian has made a reasonable start of it and he is a sweetie.
Live Feed.  
The Tree of Temptation.
Live Feed.    
Tasks which involve abject misery and smelly things for the HMs but no eating live things or Kangaroo knobs.

Treat us as partners in the process and we will play the game.  But we do not feel like partners when we are being treated as outcasts Ch5 & Jeff Ford.