End of an Era , Met Office loses BBC weather forecasting contract

It's a partnership that's lasted nearly 100 years but in an age of market forces the Met Office has lost the contract to supply the Beeb with weather forecasts.
The contract will be tendered out and a replacement provider will be revealed next year according to the BBC.

Steve Noyes, Met Office operations and customer services director, said: "Nobody knows Britain's weather better and, during our long relationship with the BBC, we've revolutionised weather communication to make it an integral part of British daily life.
"This is disappointing news, but we will be working to make sure that vital Met Office advice continues to be a part of BBC output."
The Met Office also provides many of the presenters who read the weather on the BBC and said it would be supporting them to "ensure clarity on their future".
A BBC spokesman said: "Our viewers get the highest standard of weather service and that won't change.
www.bbc.co.uk...

Of course it will change !
For me this is another example of how the BBC has its priorities all wrong , they can afford to fund rubbish like the ridiculous Pound Shop Wars but when it comes to providing quality service and entertainment they fall well short , people rely on the BBC weather forecasts for their accuracy but after the change they will be no different than any other weather service.

Another nail in the coffin for a once trusted institution , the end of the Beeb is nigh , the politicians have done their job.

Hmmmm I wonder if tax paying BBC funders get a say in this...

Let me guess...

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs
Hmmmm I wonder if tax paying BBC funders get a say in

Why should they? It's a commercial decision.

Besides, the Met Office has a wide portfolio of activity and will doubtlessly supply the successful business with information. The business they have lost is just the "public facing" service.

Maybe we'll receive a much more reliable service? I appreciate it is difficult trying to predict the U.K weather, but they very rarely seem to get it right.

The BBC is a quango for phat upper middle class champagne socialists with feux morals.

The amount they pay themselves is outrageous.

Jonathan Ross for example, before he got fired and moved to the itv was paid over £1,000,000 PER EPISODE ... For what? For hosting a chat show, and being Jonathan Ross. Imagine, if he can get paid like that what the chief execs pay themselves. All at the expense of the licence fee payer.

a reply to: paraphi

Why should they? It's a commercial decision.

The BBC isn't a commercial organization , it's owned by its viewers why shouldn't we have a say in its running.
The Met office has a reputation for quality and the BBC's stated aim is to provide quality , dumbing down of programs has been happening for years now for the sake of a few quid they're doing it to the weather forecasts.

The BBC is quickly becoming irrelevant , a situation I believe has been engineered from Downing Street over the last decade or so.

Theyre spending the license fee on lavish coc aine parties, and 24 karrot dildos........

BBC News 24? more like BBC 24 Hour Party... It's a joke to them.. Off camera the coke comes out... and goes straight up their nostrils... That Alan Yentob is the worst. He doesnt even bother to hide it in interviews. And what does he do? Creative Director for the BBC. He thinks he's a genius, but we all know bus shows are #, like any creative director in coc aine..

These peoples programs reach millions. Truly outrageous, and quite horrifying if you think about it.

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: paraphi
The BBC isn't a commercial organization , it's owned by its viewers why shouldn't we have a say in its running.

The BBC is not "owned by its viewers" per se, but I see what you mean. I would certainly like the BBC to take the opinion of the public in the way it manages it affairs more seriously, including sorting out the distasteful salaries to management and celebrities, as highlighted above by nonjudgementalist.

However, at the end of the day the BBC have done a commercial tender and the Met Office (a Government agency) has lost. Sad, but it's a commercial decision.

The problem here is that one the one hand the BBC is making commercial decisions to demonstrate value for money, but on the other it makes stupid decisions (e.g. what they pay their staff) that demonstrates brainless disregard for the public.

a reply to: nonjudgementalist

These peoples programs reach millions. Truly outrageous, and quite horrifying if you think about it.

Unfounded allegations usually are outrageous and horrifying .

The BBC are paying for their past actions but not those that you claim , they are paying for their opposition to the Iraq war and their exposure of the lies and dealings that lay behind it.

There is only one state broadcaster that I can think of that would have the guts to broadcast a series of documentaries back in 2004 exposing the Power of Nightmares being used by governments against their people and as a justification for an illegal war.


The BBC was a force for good under Greg Dyke that is now being targeted by the forces of evil.

I don't really bother with forecasts anyway, my dads obsessed with weather, so he tends to inform at some point during the day, he normally looks on the pessimistic side, he's already on to " the nights are drawing in" season.

He'll probably repeat that phrase a couple of times a day. I'm like it's called the change of seasons, it's nothing new.
I know a lot of people slag the Beeb off, but I'll miss it if it goes. You don't know what you've got till its gone.

I used to love the BBC for the documentaries and news. Then I moved out of the UK and to my surprise I kept seeing reports of the BBC apologising again because of their manipulation of news and current events. Purposefully showing photos of a certain event and claiming it was of a different event. For example, when the syria issues first started the BBC were publishing pics of dead kids and blaming Assad, turned out they were actually from the first Iraq war and they were published by the BBC then, so they obviously knew about it. Over the last few years I have realised just how manipulative and full of lies the BBC actually is on the News and in certain documentaries. This is something I never heard about while in the UK.

Im all for a major overhaul, top to bottom of the BBC. I dont know why I thought the BBC was any different from the other TV companies, now I know better.