Once again, The Sun's got the BBC in its sights as the Corporation - under new management - sets out its stall for the 2006 Charter renewal. The paper, increasingly barking since Rebakah Wade was installed as the Voice of Murdoch in the editor's seat, will do anything to promote Sky Television and hammer the BBC in the Dirty Digger's quest for worldwide media and political dominance.
"The BBC has got too grand and is too large. It’s time to sell it off." says the clearly rabid Kelvin MacKenzie.
"It would be a shameful waste of our money if the BBC were permitted to continue to squander millions competing with commercial ventures." - Translation: stop bidding for sports rights so we can get them cheaper.
"Why must we pay for it through a £121 TV licence?" - And that old chestnut. You get (count 'em) eight advertising-free TV channels, five advertising-free radio networks, further national digital radio networks (free of advertising), national radio for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in English and local dialects (Free of ads - you get the message by now), dozens of local radio stations and regional TV studios, the world's best website (free of pop-ups), and a Foreign Office-funded World Service listen to by 146,000,000 people. Oh, and trust.
Sky Television, owned by the Dirty Digger Rupert Murdoch who also owns The Sun, has a corporate target of relieving the average household of four hundred quid a year. And what do you get for this money? Loads of channels, granted, but very little in-house (or even in-country) production, no community programming, a Sky Scotland channel that was quietly shelved and, oh yes, sixteen minutes of advertising per hour. You pay forty quid a month to watch advertising you also pay for. Genius.
The one diamond in the rough is Sky News - everything a news channel should be, and a salutory lesson for it's American cousin and insult to the broadcasting profession Fox News. But hang on... isn't public service broadcasting the BBC's job?
Real public service broadcasting would be securing those Kirstie Allsopp nude photos for the nation, but that's another story.
The author of this piece has a Sky receiver in his home set at the lowest package, but does not think this is hypocritical in the slightest.
The Thursday Vote-o
You lucky, lucky people. Your humble scribe was up to all hours last night typing like a bugger, and I now have eight stories of mirth and woe for your delight:
* Trench Warfare - mud woe
* Leaflets - summer job woe
* Glider - pain in the arse woe
* Filthy Dave - Concept art woe
* Wrong Funeral - Social gaffe woe
* Colleagues from Hell - the story I vowed I'd never write woe
* Paint - slapstick woe
* Science Club - A Scaryduck/Balders co-production ...err... woe
Vote! Vote! Vote-o!
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