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Nope didn't forget. Just concentrated on the 2 main channels. The ones most people pay their licence fee for.

But my point still stands. Most of what's on are repeats, I'm not arging that they can and do produce a few gems, and some nights it can be quite good, but for the most part its not worth it.

Broadchurch for example is one of the best dramas out of the moment and that's itv and lightfields just finished, both of which were ITV.

I say again that I'm not against the BBC but I am against the premise that everyone has the priviledge of having no choice and having to pay.

Sor example, I rarely make use of any BBC services other than parliament or news, someone else may only listen to radio 1 and bbc 1 and 2, someone else radio 3 and 4 and bbc 2 and 3. It not fair that a service payment is provided for things you don't want.

I wouldn't touch ITV with a bargepole. Channel 4 occasionally puts out some good stuff with the likes of Black Mirror and Utopia recently, but without doubt the BBC is streets ahead of the competition.

Also I am happy my license fee goes to Radio 4, as long as you pick your programmes and don't end up with a play or some religion, it is the best thing to paint to.

As I said, to each his own. But why should I and people like me who watch maybe 1-2 hour of BBC tv channels per week. I listen to BBC radio sheffield for their local sports coverage.
My kids watch more disney junior and their tv sports coverage is sub standard compared to the likes of sky.

So for me and many thousands who do watch alternatives and listen to minimal radio have to pay an obscene ammount of money for a service that's barely used simply because I own a tv to watch their competition on?

Its a matter of choice... And the current system doesnt allow one.

They don't own patents on the tv, its not a tax from the government. On what reason do they have any right to demand money other than...

'Well were the BBC!' That in itself isn't a reason to automatically entitle them to anyones hard earned cash.

 Cheesecat wrote:

 Seaward wrote:

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
No, it has a small few. Gemstone's in a beach of dogshite.

Dude, I've watched British television before. I'd take some of the rose tint out of those specs.

Yeah, I imagine there's quality stuff on both sides of the pond but I would imagine most of it's mediocre or worse (for both sides of the pond).

American TV is much, much worse. There hardly seems to be any educational content, and there are adverts every 3 minutes it seems. I did enjoy The Men Who Built America when I was over there, though I was severely hungover. You wouldn't get a channel like BBC4 over there on basic cable, no way.

 Albatross wrote:
American TV is much, much worse. There hardly seems to be any educational content, and there are adverts every 3 minutes it seems. I did enjoy The Men Who Built America when I was over there, though I was severely hungover. You wouldn't get a channel like BBC4 over there on basic cable, no way.

Sounds a lot like A&E, from a brief Wikipedia glance.

 Seaward wrote:

 Albatross wrote:
American TV is much, much worse. There hardly seems to be any educational content, and there are adverts every 3 minutes it seems. I did enjoy The Men Who Built America when I was over there, though I was severely hungover. You wouldn't get a channel like BBC4 over there on basic cable, no way.

Sounds a lot like A&E, from a brief Wikipedia glance.

Duck Dynasty, a reality show following a bunch of millionaire rednecks who make duck lures around as they whoop and perform. = The Kardashians with beards.

Storage Wars, a reality show following a bunch of people bidding on the contents of unclaimed storage sheds...

American Hoggers, a reality show following a bunch of rednecks who own pigs...

And what needs explaining to the Brits is they repeat these shows through the day, you'll have entire day schedules of the three shows above repeated for the 24 hours, the same actual show.

Absolutely nothing like BBC2.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

 Seaward wrote:

 Albatross wrote:
American TV is much, much worse. There hardly seems to be any educational content, and there are adverts every 3 minutes it seems. I did enjoy The Men Who Built America when I was over there, though I was severely hungover. You wouldn't get a channel like BBC4 over there on basic cable, no way.

Sounds a lot like A&E, from a brief Wikipedia glance.

Duck Dynasty, a reality show following a bunch of millionaire rednecks who make duck lures around as they whoop and perform. = The Kardashians with beards.

Storage Wars, a reality show following a bunch of people bidding on the contents of unclaimed storage sheds...

American Hoggers, a reality show following a bunch of rednecks who own pigs...

And what needs explaining to the Brits is they repeat these shows through the day, you'll have entire day schedules of the three shows above repeated for the 24 hours, the same actual show.

Absolutely nothing like BBC2.

Yeah, I should point out that 'The Men Who Built America' was on for around 5 hours, followed by 4 hours of something called 'Pawn Stars'.

And this reality show fixation with tv execs over here (because it's insanely cheap tv to make) is everywhere.

Syfy, which used to be the Scifi channel, is now making more shows with donkey-caves in abandoned warehouses with a nightvision camera so everything's green and folks have spooky eyes, than can be labelled by top scientists.

Look at all this gak, just on that one channel:

Reality
Scare Tactics (2003–present)
Ghost Hunters (2004–present)
Destination Truth (2007–present)
Ghost Hunters International (2008–present)
Hollywood Treasure (2010–present)
Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files (2010–present)
Face Off (2011–present)
Haunted Collector (2011–present)
Paranormal Witness (2011–present)
Monster Man (2012–present)
Dream Machines (2012–present)
Insane or Inspired? (2012–present)
School Spirits (2012–present)
Haunted Highway (2012–present)
Collection Intervention (2012–present)
Hot Set (2012–present)
Viral Video Showdown (2012–present)
Deals From the Darkside (2012–present)
Stranded (February 27, 2013-present)
Notorious Hauntings (March 1, 2013-present)
Deep South Paranormal (premieres April 10, 2013)
Weird or What? (premieres April 30, 2013)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Albatross wrote:
[
Yeah, I should point out that 'The Mean Who Built America' was on for around 5 hours.

I did build it, in fairness...

The BBC does a great job. As far as news goes, it's relatively unbiased. It has excellent educational programming (IMO, the best wildlife documentaries come from the BBC, and are probably the main reason I am a Biologist).

We used to be able to pick it up, living on the east coast of Ireland, and it was miles better than our version (RTÉ) which is a fairly incestuous, talent starved organisation. RTÉ has advertisements and american re-runs instead of home made shows, and it charges a license fee. They even want to charge a license fee for people using computers since you might be using it to access RTÉ content.

The BBC is the only channel I watch when I'm at home (I don't watch TV, normally). They might not have the big budget of the US, but their focus on education and balance is admirable.

That said, I'm sure the US produces many fine documentaries, and I know it produces a lot of really great TV too. But there is a lot of dreck.

Edited to add: And if you don't want to pay the license fee, just don't buy a telly. They can't charge you if you're not picking up the signal. In fact, I didn't have my telly plugged in or set up when the license man came around when I lived in Essex, because I used it for playing x box mostly. He was going to let me off paying the fee but I said I'd pay it anyway- guilt at getting the programming for free over the republic for so long I guess!

And this is why people look to the internet for news and content (along with the proper context).

The drivel you see on TV is worse than ever before here in America. The fact I have to look at youtube for better educational content than TV is sad.

Oppa Decline of Civilization Style.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

Reality
Face Off (2011–present)

While I've don't actually watched the show, this is actually quite a worthwhile programme. While yes, it is a 'reality show', it's quite a unique idea with a bit of an unsung heroes bent. - It's all about a group of people learning to become science fiction and fantasy costume and makeup artists, for aliens, creatures and the like.

Mind you, I still go by my stance of, "oh, it's on the syfy channel, isn't a Z movie, a ghost hunting programme or wrestling, it'll be cancelled in a year."

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

 Seaward wrote:

 Albatross wrote:
American TV is much, much worse. There hardly seems to be any educational content, and there are adverts every 3 minutes it seems. I did enjoy The Men Who Built America when I was over there, though I was severely hungover. You wouldn't get a channel like BBC4 over there on basic cable, no way.

Sounds a lot like A&E, from a brief Wikipedia glance.

Duck Dynasty, a reality show following a bunch of millionaire rednecks who make duck lures around as they whoop and perform. = The Kardashians with beards.

Storage Wars, a reality show following a bunch of people bidding on the contents of unclaimed storage sheds...

American Hoggers, a reality show following a bunch of rednecks who own pigs...

And what needs explaining to the Brits is they repeat these shows through the day, you'll have entire day schedules of the three shows above repeated for the 24 hours, the same actual show.

Absolutely nothing like BBC2.

Yeah, that was my fault. I was thinking of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, etc. That's AMC, not A&E.

With regard the other British channels, I stopped watching ITV when Morse finished. I watched a few Harry Hill TV burps but that was it, nothing else. Five was utterly without merit. Did watch a fair bit of Channel four in fairness, but it's always been fringe viewing, it's news is also fairly good.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Seaward wrote:


Yeah, that was my fault. I was thinking of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, etc. That's AMC, not A&E.

And you'd be right, those shows are good, along with Walking Dead, HBO also does some great TV, Game of Thrones for instance.

And like I said earlier, they are the rare, increasingly rare, jewels in a sea of utter, utter gak.

The rest of the channels have decided to go for the cheapest option, a two man camera crew, a sound guy and a pack of rednecks/weirdos/rich idiots.

Rest well Mr Rodgers, thy time has passed... Now is come the Honey Boo Boo and Housewives of Various Locations.

Have you noticed how the rebranding comes just before this devolution into gak? National Geographic becomes 'natgeo', the Learning Channel becomes 'TLC' and Scifi becomes 'syfy'...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Compel wrote:

Mind you, I still go by my stance of, "oh, it's on the syfy channel, isn't a Z movie, a ghost hunting programme or wrestling, it'll be cancelled in a year."

Yepper, I will NEVER forgive that pack of bastards for what they did to Farscape.

Now they are touting Defiance (cynically tying it into an mmo... ) and whilst I'm a bit interested, I will not invest my time in it. I know they will run a couple of series and then cancel it before it's time. Syfy can suck my Cornish salty balls.

As far as I'm considered the SciFi channel died when it's name changed, the imposter that replaced it is a mere shadow of it's former self.

As to the modern incarnation "History" channel... I miss the days of the "Hitler" channel. It's where my abiding love of the study of WW2 came from.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:

As to the modern incarnation "History" channel... I miss the days of the "Hitler" channel. It's where my abiding love of the study of WW2 came from.

It became the Military Channel I believe. One of the few regrets I'll have when I can'x cable at the end of the month.

think we're done.