h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"You seem to be forgetting that the BBC is more than just a couple of TV channels."

I realise this, but there are plans afoot for many of the free services to be chargable. I think it's ludicrous to allow advertising on *any* BBC channels and still charge a licence fee, to charge people a higher licence fee if they have digital TV (which we will all have in ten years when the analogue signal is shut down) and to attempt to make people pay for BBC online usage.

"And to cap it all off it's the one broadcaster that can afford to take risks with imaginative programming eg The Young Ones, Dr Who, Monty Python etc etc ad nauseum."

Hmm, I would contest this point. I can't think of a great deal of BBC stuff that's really 'risky' and even those that are more leftfield get buried on BBC2 until they are deemed popular TV. Channel 4 has probably done more to push the cause of imagination, at least until it became a USA TV repeat station a few years back.

"I'm GLAD the BBC is funded through a tax like system. They couldn't afford the above unless they showed wall to wall advertising."

Just waiting for the new digital channel: BBC Ads

The pilot is on radio now, it's called BBC Trails, and it's on 92-94 FM