Still Brassed Off


By Larry Jaffe


I was hoping to report in this issue that stateside EastEnders fans were going to have some new way of accessing current episodes of the series either through a new network home or a video-on-demand service. At press time, neither had materialised, but a BBC America spokeswoman assures me in a somewhat patronizing tone, "I'll be the first the first to know."

Following my appeal in the last issue, on Dec. 1, 2003 I received a written reply from Rupert Murdoch that he would "take into consideration" my suggestion that his News Corp. acquire the U.S. rights to EastEnders for its newly acquired DirecTV satellite service and perhaps its FX cable network.

Since then I have not luck getting in touch with either Mr. Murdoch or DirecTV's new head, Mitch Stern, to reiterate how DirecTV and other digital cable/satellite TV services are losing scores of subscribers because of EastEnders fans who have cancelled their subscription as the result of BBC America pulling the plug on EastEnders last September. But I plan to be persistent with both News Corp. (and BBC America, for that matter) because I believe this is a legitimate business opportunity. The day after picking up the last issue of the Walford Gazette, I met with Mark Young, CEO of BBC Worldwide Americas, who thought might have some news for us by February. Obviously that passed, and Mr. Young has not returned my calls or e-mails to find out what is going on.

But I must share something that happened during our lunch. The day before, the trade magazine Television Week ran a letter from me regarding a short piece the publication ran the previous week regarding a protest that some New York fans mounted in front of the BBC offices on Third Avenue. The reporter called Jo Petherbridge, BBC America's senior vice president of communications, for comment about the protest. "We know Larry well ," she sighed to Television Week. (I found the statement amusing.) She went on to explain about how the show never performed even when led in by the channel's highest rated show, Ground Force, the protest's turnout was small, and besides the New York location is a sales office that has nothing to do with BBC America.

My published letter to the magazine stated that it's nice to see BBC America is amused by our protest, but that does not explain why the network chose not to promote the series, and all that BBC America proved was there's little synergy between a dramatic serial and a home improvement show.

Reading my letter, Mr. Young commented: "Fair point." I immediately exclaimed, "Fair enough to put it back on?" to which he replied, "No, of course not." It's obvious they are not willing to admit that they made a mistake, and did not give EastEnders a fair chance of succeeding.

But at the same time, BBC Worldwide realises that it would be foolish to not take advantage of a diehard audience willing to pay for its favourite show. It's for that reason that I doubt they would ever sell the show to another party such as News Corp. for fear of cannibalising any kind of subscription service. Mr. Young mentioned that one option being considered by BBC Worldwide to fill the void is a DVD-R subscription service. Who knows if it will ever materialise? Obviously the BBC has the far bigger problems these days than current EastEnders episodes not being on in the U.S. In late January the BBC's chairman and director-general both resigned following a British judge's report that the BBC erred when it let a radio news report over the air that suggested the Blair administration "sexed up" the case against Saddam Hussein to justify Britain's involvement in the war against Iraq. (Isn't it ironic that George W. Bush is finding himself in hot water for exactly the same reason that the BBC's top executive, Greg Dyke, had to resign?)

In any case, Mr.Young told me that Mr. Dyke was aware of my meeting with him in November and was in fact in New York that day. Too bad he didn't join us. Meanwhile, in the British press recently reported about progress in an online archive of its vast programming library that the BBC plans to make launch sometime in the unspecified future. But I wouldn't get too excited yet about what this potentially means for EastEnders because most likely the service will be accessible to only U.K. residents, at least initially. I would like to close this time with a U.K. news report in mid-January of a recent survey that found most Brits dream of moving to other places. Not surprisingly, the U.S. came out on top. But I wonder if they'd still come to the States if they knew they had to wait four years to see where Eastenders left off?

I still find it unfathomable that the BBC's most popular series in the U.K. cannot make it work in the U.S.




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