Being fair to him, he had been with he beeb 20 odd years, altho in this job a short time. I was surprised his salary was so low tbh, given his resposnsibilty. And reclon a deal was done for him to fall on his sword rather than just waking up and think 'balls to this I'm off'
But it's your choice to have it or not. With the beeb you get no choice. I rarely turn the telly on, so the beeb is costing me about a fiver a programme. Do you think that's fair?
Personally I welcome the way the beeb is funded. I'm sick and tired of 'its gotta make money' culture we have where good old fashioned values are replaced by the new value of cash. Look at the NHS?! Police service?! Privatising elements and using the words 'brand' and 'customers' work well there eh?!
There's no escape Terry - Anyone in the UK watching or recording television as it's being broadcast or simulcast on any device - including mobiles, laptops and PCs - must, by law, be covered by a valid TV licence. A 'live' TV programme is a programme, which is watched or recorded at the same time (or virtually the same time) as it is being broadcast or otherwise distributed to members of the public. As a general rule, if a person is watching a programme on a computer or other device at the same time as it is being shown on TV then the programme is 'live'. This is sometimes known as simulcasting. If you are using the live rewind function to either restart the current live programme or to rewind any live stream for up to 2 hours, a television license is required as you are still accessing the live simulcasts.
I did wonder. But how would they monitor this? Or is Big Brother digitally alerted once you lick on the URL?
The thing that I think is hypocritical is that the commons were so keen to curry the public anger by bringing it up in the commons as some form of travesty, yet defended Fred Goodwin's 600K annual pension. This is no different to some civil servants getting anything up to 100% pay increases the year or so prior to retirement so their final salary pensions can pay out well (and I know of one such person - 35K, then a year before she retired it shot up to 55. Final salary pension on retirement - I thank you). I just see this guy as carrying the can - a sacrificial lamb was needed and he was it. He'll probably be lined up in another senior role by some unknown quango before the year is out. ...still, as long as the bankers are all right... mustn't upset the bankers.
I live close to Budleigh Salterton; a town that is seemingly full of retired senior Civil Servants and BBC executives and presenters. The former still believe they have authority of everyone, and the latter still work on the "do you know who I am?" principal. Arrogant tos*ers and some of the most msierable people I have ever met.
I find it hard to believe that they are respected around the world. Who apart from themselves puts them on that pedestal? I agree that some of the wildlife programmes are high quality, but no better than many on the National Geographic channels. The sports coverage is sometimes very good, but not the best - try watching the bike racing on BBC and compare it to Eurosport. Their journalism is so politically biased its a joke. I'm amazed that they've never been reigned in from delivering the news to suit their own agendas. Even Channel 4 News is far better than the BBC's.
