BBC extends Capita Audience Services contract to 25 years

Capita's fortunes of late may be in general decline but the UK's much loved IT outsourcing biz can always rely on the British Broadcasting Corporation – propped up by license fee payers – to dish out cheques. Under the latest deal, Auntie has inked a seven-year extension for Audience Services (AS), which includes Capita …

[HmmmYes]

25 years?

I guess they must be more confident that the license fee will still be around than I am. I guess hey have to be, their pensions depending on it.

I doubt Ill be renewing my license. No one watches BBC in my house. Either they dont watch it (kids) Or cannot watch the drivel that BBC shows (Me).

[Halfmad]

We're the same, I do listen to the radio - that's the only reason I don't begrudge the TV tax too much.

The TV stations though are mostly garbage. BBC News has become increasingly **** as well.

[codejunky]

@ HmmmYes

"I guess they must be more confident that the license fee will still be around than I am"

I fear there are still many people who want it but only if others pay for it.

[HmmmYes]

Re: @ HmmmYes

Ahh, you have parents with a free license too.

To be honest, even my mum only watches itv soaps.

I think a lack hercules was too much for her.

Still, i look for to a mandela series, played by les dennis, colour blind, pushing boundaries and all that.

[Cuddles]

"25 years?"

7 years. It's an extension to a contract that started in 1999; they're not planning quite that far into the future. It's also nothing to do with license fees, the contract for which was already extended back in 2012, as noted in the article. The contract in question here is about outsourcing all their customer services - Crapita don't just collect your license fee, they're also the ones who deal with your complaints when they screw up.

[djstardust]

Re: 25 years?

My concern is whether Capita will be around then. Given the current state of outsourcing let's hope it's a hell of a lot shorter than that.

[ad47uk]

I have not had a Tv licence for 3 years now, I do not miss the BBC, not one bit.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I have not had a Tv licence for 3 years now, I do not miss the BBC, not one bit."

Good for you. I haven't borrowed a book from a library in 15 years. I do no miss the library, not one bit.

[HmmmYes]

Ahh one of those.

Libraries had their time when books were v. expensive, to be treasured, worshiped.

And databass/electronic lookup were non existent.

Today, books/printing are cheap as chips.

However, librarians are very expensive. Most if the library budget is spent on people, not books.

30 years ago, I would go and look stuff up at the library. Or ask a librarian.

Now I google or Amazon. So does everyone else.

[paulf]

@HmmmYes "30 years ago, I would go and look stuff up at the library. Or ask a librarian. Now I google or Amazon. So does everyone else."

And that's why Libraries evolved at least in the places I have lived for the last 20 years. They offer internet access to those who need it and don't have it at home. They're also about more than books - yes you can borrow books (great if you can afford to buy every book you want but not everyone can) but they are also used as a community building that (among other things) offer events to get kids into reading, and a point of contact with your local authority if you need to discuss council services.

Personally, I don't use the local libraries now; I'm lucky that I can afford to buy rather than borrow the books I want to read and frankly I don't have time to read the ones I have bought without borrowing more. BUT I'm more than happy that libraries are funded by my taxes because I remember how much I enjoyed browsing and reading the books in my local library when I was younger and how that inspired me to pursue different interests as I got older (widening my horizons to interests I didn't even know existed), or just get a story book I hadn't read before.

[Teiwaz]

Books were expensive.....?

Libraries had their time when books were v. expensive, to be treasured, worshiped.

I was in Waterstones a week ago - £10 for a softback....

They were £4.99 in the early 90's...going on £7.99 later in the decade and early this century.

A tenner lifts it out of a mid casual purchase for me...Am I going to read it more than once? sort of investment territory.

Seems new books are still cheap if they are the kind of 'bestseller' that sells well in supermarkets...

[Cuddles]

Re: Books were expensive.....?

"I was in Waterstones a week ago - £10 for a softback....

They were £4.99 in the early 90's...going on £7.99 later in the decade and early this century.

A tenner lifts it out of a mid casual purchase for me"

£5 in 1990 was worth the same as £10.43 in 2016 (so closer to £11 today given inflation still well over 2%). It's not a significant price drop, but complaining that they're no longer a casual purchase despite costing slightly less than they used to really doesn't make a lot of sense.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Books were expensive.....?

You're assuming salaries have also increased in direct relation over that time period. For those that had to deal with pay cuts etc. that is a lot more now, in relation to their income as it was back then.

After redundancy (2,500 jobs cut at my employer at the turn of the century) and working my way back up, I'm earning about the same (in actual, as opposed to relative terms) as I was at the turn of the century.

[portyman]

They changed the law fairly recently to say you had to have a licence. You could get away with it before if you only watched shows on demand, however if you watched ANY live tv on any channel you needed a licence. It was not a bbc licence. Its was a licence to watch broadcasted material.

[charlieboywoof]

I don't pay, useless, meaningless biased PC BS, die BBC die. Cheers

[Thicko]

If you think the BBC is biased just watch a bit of Fox Be!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah no wonder Capita's bloody Sales People havent got back to us

Still no replacement system quote for our phone system and yet more of our kit has gone out of support because Capita can't even be arsed to do the usual i.e send invoices (Unless they can read our minds as I'm pretty sure we don't actually want to give you any money and would prefer them not buying up companies we use for external support).

[AMBxx]

Re: Ah no wonder Capita's bloody Sales People havent got back to us

Not sure of your details, but what did you expect and why haven't you found a new supplier?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Ah no wonder Capita's bloody Sales People havent got back to us

I winging a flying guess, but I'm going for an Avaya system.Basing this on the fat all the 6.x kit is has been dropping out of support starting about 6 months ago.

Avaya decided to put all their pricing quotes and sales on hold while they came out of Chapter 11 and did their public listing, so even the sales people couldn't get quotes, even if they wanted to.

I know we had exactly the same issue as you and also have loads of kit dropping out of support.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Ah no wonder Capita's bloody Sales People havent got back to us

Moving to another supplier whilst we have parts out of support is difficult (Capita have some how managed to complicate the support so you need some sort of rocket scientist to make out wtf they have done. Also adding a new supplier requires the new supplier sacrifices their youngest child before they will let us use them), also very hard to find a good alternative supplier as Capita actually purchased a very capable company with good knowledge of Cisco's Unified Communications System (Sorry not Avaya).

[CAPS LOCK]

I'm just guessing here, but perhaps BBC execs will soon be moving to the board of Crapita...

... time will tell...

[macjules]

Re: I'm just guessing here, but perhaps BBC execs will soon be moving to the board of Crapita...

You get more money at the BBC than at Capita... and the trebles taste all the better for being bought with taxpayers' money.

[Anonymous Coward]

Never mind

The way things are going they'll be bankrupt in three.

[Chris G]

Interested to know

How a publicly funded organisation can decide to withhold how much it is paying for services or anything else?

The Beeb seems to think it can do what it likes with public money (and does) but doesn't seem to be accountable to anyone.

Also curious to know how much owed license fees Crapita recovered for it's 1/2 Beellion, was it value for money and a net gain?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Interested to know

They hide behind the defence of 'commercial confidentiality', as does government when caught spending outrageous amounts of money on something that they can't justify.

The theory seems to be that if we all knew what they paid for a product then somebody might bid a lower figure for the same product, and we can't possibly have that. Heavens to Murgatroyd, no we can't.

[strum]

Re: Interested to know

>The Beeb seems to think it can do what it likes with public money

Here's the thing you need to grasp; it isn't public money. It's the Beeb's. We've handed it over, and it's theirs. We can no more expect to scrutinise their expenditure than we can that of Sainsburys or Openreach.

[amanfromMars 1]

The EXTacy Delivers Disturbances in the Force fromReal Live Loving Sources/Immaculate Energy Plants

And Audience Services Servers Dictate Heavenly AIScript which Traces Back to Immaculate Pasts but with New AIded Beginnings. Has that Hot Wired News been missing from MainStreamMedia retorts/reports?

Bungle that Censorship Operation and One Be Right Buggered if Not Claiming an Ignorant Innocence which Confirms Denial of Any Future Knowledge and one having no Further Future Role to Play for a While ..... whilst one is Recovered for Rest and ReProgramming to Recreation in Pleasures Mutually Satisfying Delivering ESPecial Access to All Levels Servering Quantum CodeXSSXXXX.

Think Outlaw and Pirate/Private and General and any Combination of Cool Cyber Client in between to give yourself every chance of knowing where and what Recovery in Rest and ReProgramming to Recreation in Pleasures Mutually Satisfying Delivering ESPecial Access to All Levels Servering Quantum CodeXSSXXXX leads to/leads from.

And the BBC's Prime Role is to Show the Ways Available for General Relative Realisation with SMARTR AI Programs Depicting the Fuller Spectrum of Delights that Generous States Can Provide and Succour/AIMentor and Monitor Free Gratis.

[King Jack]

Re: The EXTacy Delivers Disturbances in the Force...

@ amanfromMars 1

Your use of capital letters makes my head spin. Random words have them. Are you writing in code?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The EXTacy Delivers Disturbances in the Force...

You must be new.

Although it must be said, I MfM has not been around for a while, The meds must of been working....or a quick spell in prison.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The EXTacy Delivers Disturbances in the Force...

> Your use of capital letters makes my head spin. Random words have them. Are you writing in code?

It drowns out the voices" :]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnCw3qqSjtU

[amanfromMars 1]

Re: It drowns out the voices" :] @Fumigator

They more address the voices, Palace Barracks Holyw00d Style, Fumigator.

Spooky NEUKlearer HyperRadioProACTive Virtualised AIReality ProgramMING Stuff for MI5/MI6/MuI7 Use/Abuse/Misuse if not in Total Command of Remote Autonomous Control which is Much More an Anonymous than Eponymous Styled ACTivity.

Have you ever Played to Win Over Aliens, and whilst being Fully Understanding of the True Victory in Granting Wholesale Defeat to Them and their Almighty CyberIntelAIgent Forces with COSMIC Sources, does IT Supply Such Almighty COSMIC RESourced Forces with AI Cleaned and Novel NEUKlearer HyperRadioProACTive CyberSpaces for Practical Realisation in a Transparently Shared Virtual Enactment Plot with A.N.Others AIMaster Piloting Galaxy Busting Cruisers Tendering Mother Ships.

Some Spooks will, so let's save them from wasting any time, equate that to a New More Orderly World Order Coup D'État targeting Extant Hierarchical Establishment Systems. Would it be considered Deadly Opposition or be accepted as a Friendly Opportunity to Explore and Exploit?

[Anonymous Coward]

BBC supports government, government supports anyone that can target the vulnerable. A match made in heaven really.

[Chas]

The British Brainwashing Corporation in bed with Crapita? Who'd have guessed!

[Fruit and Nutcase]

BBCC

@Chas

The British Brainwashing Corporation in bed with Crapita? Who'd have guessed!

And the result of their union will be known as The British Brainwashing Crapita Corporation

[mark l 2]

Surely with the advent of iPlayer they can gauge the quality of the programmes by number of views and length of view time it gets on the Iplayer site, it seems to work for Youtube. Rather than paying Crapita to do it like it were still the 1990s.

[Anonymous Coward]

Capita Audience Services

I hadn't realized anyone under ninety was still watching television.

"Auntie has inked a seven-year extension for Audience Services (AS) .. A BBC spokeswoman said the latest award was between £30m-£35m"

The BBC could hire on roughly one hundred and fifty people at thirty grand for the same amount.

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

"Capita has also been collecting license fees on behalf of the broadcasting house"

Not from my house it hasn't. And it won't.

[wolfetone]

From bean to cup, they fuck up. A total omnishambles of an organisation. And Crapita aren't much better.

[hairydog]

Surely there is no way that Crapita could win such a contract legitimately, so it would make sense to look into whose pockets (or whose partners or cronies' pockets) are being lined by this deal.

As for signing a 25 year contract with such a dysfunctional corporation that has such an appalling record; well, that really needs legal challenge.

[IsJustabloke]

@hairydog

It's almost like you didn't actually read the article.

[Terminator666]

Out of the last 36 years, I have had a license for just 8 years I just refuse to pay the Paedo tax I would rather read or listen to something online than pay them

[Terminator666]

Their PIP assessment staff are Ballacks they couldn't get an assessment right to save themselves.They have their fingers in too many pies they are going to get seriously burnt.

[Anonymous Coward]

The BBC is a load of crap(ita)

[Anonymous Coward]

I have no stake in this other than, like any other tax, any one evading it causes the costs to go up for those of us paying it. I make no comment about whether I agree or not.

For those not buying a license in the UK because "I don't watch the BBC" I hope you are aware that.

"The licence fee is not a payment for BBC services (or any other television service)"

"It is an offence to watch or record television programmes as they are being shown on any channel and on any broadcast platform (terrestrial, satellite, cable and the internet) or download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer without a valid TV Licence."

"This could be on any device, including TVs, desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, games consoles, digital boxes, DVD, Blu-ray and VHS recorders."

I'm sure they will find a way to cover the likes of Netflix at some point.

[HmmmYes]

I very very rarely watch live telly.

[amanfromMars 1]

What they are terrified of telling you.

It is my understanding that the BBC Royal Charter dictates that anyone with a viable scripting program has prime intellectual property rights to have that program broadbandcast and shared worldwide. Pitch it to the Corporation and they are duty bound, in order to receive license fee funding, to produce it with direction retained by programme creators.

[amanfromMars 1]

Re: What they are terrified of telling you. The Rot that is Killing the Host from Deep Within

A closed shop programming supply chain produces incestuous, severely disabled and mentally unstable results ...... which are easily highlighted as abominations/anomalies by A.N.Others working in Parallel Fields.

The stock ineffective defence and attack against such alternate views which dig deeper and further into dodgy news tales, is to brand them disinformation and misinforming propaganda.

Very quickly then does one of the question to ask for an answer become .... If established and traditional mainstream media engines are not your friend, and hiding the real truth of everything important that matters, is it a traitorous enemy to be thoroughly vanquished and reconstituted in a Wholly Much Better Phorm/SMARTR Advanced IntelAIgent Model?

[Anonymous Coward]

BBC should bin the licence fee and go the subscription route if the BBC is so loved by the nation. They aren't so they won't. The government has kept it on as their mouthpiece.

[Defiant]

TVLR

Never had a BBC TV Licence and never will