My apologies, I'd heard things in the past that made me assume it was per set. I stand corrected.

If it's okay for you to throw money after people who produce utter trash most of the time, as long as they get things right every now and then, then I'd gladly work for you. I promise to do something actually sensible for one or two hours per week. ;)

In the real world that's actually defined as 'productive' (really - most people would kill for 2 hours of direct productivity), I'm guessing you don't work there. Seriously - things fail, but should be tried anyway, and in the case of the BBC, things you disagree with are not necessarily failures. I'm guessing again that you aren't bound by a charter to provide a service that represents the whole country, and are in fact (and this one I'm sure of) one person.

I'm not sure which specific facet of the "real world" you see me living in, but I can assure you, if it were okay for me to do sensible things only for one or two hours a week, then my business would have died years ago, and my other projects probably would've stalled. Of course, if someone were to pay me for producing crap, then I could do so with much less effort. ;)

(Btw, there's a difference between "trying things out and failing", and "purposefully producing tripe even though you get a lot of money for producing _good_ stuff", as I'm sure you're aware. The former is necessary to develop a business and keep it alive, the second is what the main German broadcasting companies unfortunately do.)

I got a lot out of Arte. Not just a few hours, but loads and loads. I hardly watched any other channel while I was in Germany, except for a few bits of news and the ZDF programmes mentioned above. I still get a lot out of Arte's Indy films (Arte is co-funded by ARD / ZDF and French state television) even abroad. Here's a bit on Arte's film funding: http://www.aivf.org/00/12/film-festivals-arte And here list of films they co-founded: http://www.arte-edition.de/cat/b8k8icf4lkzrxmjbzik8xsb4rq5jfjptp4jk7l.html?s=b8ksidbf8vrxaf8uzh4fimbkpfdpfmuru4j8gz (There's a lot more that are "out of print" now.)

Edit: And another bit on Arte funding: http://cineuropa.org/2011/nw.aspx?t=newsdetail&l=en&did=85490

I.e. I just don't agree. I don't buy the argument people usually push forward that they don't like what's shown - simply because, again, the type of programmes folks seem to demand don't get viewers, but nonsense like "Wetten Dass" gets millions. If there'd actually BE massive protest about / disinterest in "all that crap" you get the programming would change. What I actually see are people saying I want quality / minority programming for free. THAT won't ever happen.

Plus - if you calculate the cost spread out over a year it is not that much money. Here in the UK it is around £0.40 / day. Compare that to the fees companies like Sky charge (and people do pay those without as much moaning - and yet those companies do, in comparison, nearly zilch for actually promoting / funding / supporting cultural stuff!) and it really is negligible for what you get. Especially if you actually look (I've done that a little above) about what support these big organisations provide outside just their main "TV business". Really - as bad as those state TV stations' look - folks working on the independent / documentary / political side of programming / art / writing / theatre will seriously suffer without the support they do get from them.

And again - the problem isn't the way the system works in itself. There's BOTH a wrong perception and not actually as much of an audience for non-mainstream TV as generally thought there is - which is precisely why we need non-commercial TV. Can it be better - sure ... but that comes down to consumer / tax payer demand.

Though the British do get some awesome stuff on radio. BBC R4 does some really good book adaptations, a pleasure to listen to, really. Let's not forget The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy which was born there. And BBC7 did some Lovecraft narrations. Kinda cool.
I'd gladly pay for that.

A bit off top: Anyone here listens to those?;)

Yeah! Radio four is on, fairly much all the time, in the background here :).

It depends. If by property you mean home, than yes. If it's hotel/motel , owner should pay license fee for each tv in each room. How f----d up is that?

Wow, really?

I would just...not watch TV. Oh wait I already don't watch TV.

...the "to bring the PS3 here sometime in the near future" entry, was just scrapped from the mind-list. Really?

And yeah, I received threatening letters as well, we went to a website and made an application or something telling them that e do not own a TV and then the letters stopped.

Well, in Poland even if you have car radio or mobile radio/TV in your phone, you have to pay license fee. (if it's only radio, the fee is smaller)

Btw. There was even an idea that everyone who has electricity in their home should pay license fee for TV. But it was fortunatelly dropped by prime minister after critical response from people.

same here in Denmark..

no wait.. here you have to pay that license IF you OWN a TV.. screw if you watch their programming.. if you own a TV or computer or phone with internet connection or radio etc etc etc.. you have to pay a license!!

they even have people running around to peoples homes to check if they have any of these things (people that dont pay)

The last time I saw the weather forecast it started with "Vädret presenteras av <random company>" or something similar.

I don't have any pretence to being "cool" by using terms like DK, it is highly likely I am the least cool person on the planet , I am just calling it as I see it :-

News today, election in Scotland - result likely to trigger a referendum on independence for Scotland.

United Kingdom?

Wednesday. Carwyn Jones writes to David Cameron criticising his handling of "the euro crisis", spends Thursday in Brussels sucking up to eurocrats, Plaid Cymru launches a bandwagon of indepence for Wales.

United Kingdom?

(For the many who don't know Carwyn Jones is the first minister of the Welsh assembly.)

I am not even going to start on the factions and divisions within England.

As for the free market it not that which has failed, it is the way that money is produced and used, as a commodity, that has caused the failure. Money should simply be a means to enable commerce to happen. (Google "Money as debt - it is very informative.)

It's interesting that you should mention Iran, try watching Press TV (an Iranian News Channel broadcast in english) and compare that to the BBC News. Do it quickly though because it will soon be off air, the gov is going to ban it. (No I am NOT Iranian.)

Is quality news broadcasting having a HEADLINE item that it is about it being the final of a b-list celebrity competition? At the same time other important news items are ignored, why? In my opinion it's because its a public phone in vote for the winner = ££££££££ for the BBC.

I'm sorry if it seems like I'm ranting but I feel strongly on this topic and the many other daily rip-offs that the British people face under threat of punishment. The DK has resorted to sticks in preference to carrots in everything it does now:- If the BBC was good enough then I would pay to watch it, happily, but it isn't so a stick is used to make people pay for a sub-standard service, that is way, way off what its charter says it should be.