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

[{Courtesy}] *little sleep, but two papers done and only finals next week left*

[Lurking, on and off]

B4iCuAgain

[Lurking, on and off]

B4iCuAgain

Hmmm.....how to describe the megalith that is the BBC? It is the world's first public broadcast service, with the aims of informing, entertaining and educating. Or words to that effect.

Anyone who buys a tv has to buy a tv license regardless of whether they BBC channels or not, failure to have a license is now a penalty of £1000. Continual refusal is a an imprisonable offence.

Names and addresses of purchases are passed on to the Post Office who are responsible for collection of the fee. Detector vans occasional patrol the streets and can pick out operating tvs even in blocks of flats.

The Corporation is free of commercials, in order to avoid commercial pressures and also free of government interference, the revenue raised from the license fee is meant to provide independence to provide an unbiased view. This only applies to BBC1 and BBC2 and the radio stations.

The BBC website is the largest and fastest growing in the world and some of the accusations may just be sour grapes.

[Hati]

What doesn't make sense to me is that over here, tons of channels show the same thing, and no one complains.

Or is Marv right, and the BBC gets priviledges that no one else does?

Ugh. I think that I have found a new bug in the PIX code. While this is easily the most interesting part of my job it is also often very frustrating to see all my hard troubleshooting work just get passed off to a programmer. But, I have had two field notices created and about ten bugs files do to my cases in the past three years.

MR

The BBC is funded from the TV licence fee so it is privaliged, but in return it has to obey a lot of rules which don't apply to the commercial broadcasters and gets very public scrutiny.

The BBC is the main reason the commercial broadcasters in the UK have to keep their standards up, if they don't they lose audience to the Beeb.



If the beeb didn't exist the standards of the commercial channels would quickly sink to as low as they could get away with.

The only reason you don't complain on your side of the pond is that you have no equivilant the BBC to compare the comercial channels to.

Only a few years ago the commercial broadcasters were crowing that the bbc being unable to compete with them and would fade away, of course that was when the economy was booming and advertising revenues were high.

Now..... What a bunch of wingers


The current licence fee is £112 a year, which is cheaper than my subscription to sky sports or buying a decent daily paper.

[BB]

[WM]

[Amy] *nods her head at what BB said*

No fg today. I feel all mumsy.

So, the licensing fee is rather like a cable subscription over here, is it? Or do the commercial channels pay it?

if it is something you pay, you pay a heck of a lot less than I do for cable.


I have, for the first time in my life, writer's block. This is NOT good, not good at all. I'm going crazy. Does anyone know the formal word which describes the following? I'm trying to explain why a merchant who is both buying and selling would be going to a town, rather than not going to a town. Thus, the towns are WHAT? I was thinking indispensible, but that's not right.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

...and I feel outgrabe.

B4u

The towns are a market place, or is that too simple? A common ground (literally)? Are you looking for an adjective or a noun?

When you go to town, are you going to buy this?
http://www3.jcpenney.com/jcp/Products.asp?GrpTyp=PRD&ItemID=05b5baa&RefPa

It's Barbie's Dream House gone nutso. Welcome to the 21st century, or is the 1950s all over again?

But we also have to pay cable subscription as well. Depending on what package you select, it can be up to £50 a month, more if all the movie and sports channels are selected. I still think the license fee is value for money.

MR, no idea on the word you want, but it was easier to trade centrally at a weekly market than risking the poor roads and robbers trying to get round to isolated villages and farming communities.

If you need any jpegs, there are loads of re-enactments going on all over the place. I'm sure we can supply you with some between us all.

I'm here!

The closest equivalent to the BBC in America is PBS. Individual TV owners do not pay a license, but partial funding for the Public Broadcast System comes from general taxes paid to the federal government.

As for Barbie, I think there should be a "UN Inspector Barbie". She has her own little white van, jumpsuit and hardhart, and a clipboard to check off all the weapons manufacturing sites.

Hey that is precicely what I used my sisters barbie playhouse for with my GI joe guys when i was a kid.

MR - could the word be Integral? Crossroads?

Courtesy

You might also like PEACE KEEPERS BATTLE STATION. Oh! I feel an oxymigraine coming on.

Caer, Courtesy, you are wonderful....and the winning word is INTEGRAL.

Good grief, why couldn't *I* think of that? I think I need either more caffeine or a good night's sleep!

Courtesy, that beer is on me. And I am working tomorrow night, so if you can spare an hour or two, I'll be there afer 5. Look for the redhead behind the bar.