Even more dumbing down
That I am Unionist is well known, but were I not I think it would be big ask to find anything more insulting than an item in The Daily Record on the SNP's broadcasting plans.
Were Scotland to gain independence, among the other possible trappings, it would seek to have a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation. Seems reasonable - I do not suppose Slovenes tune in to Belgrade broadcast TV any longer, Kievans to Moscow etc etc. The Record quotes that woman Jowell to the effect that a license fee would cost £250 to 'match the output of the BBC'. A number of issues arise - the SBC could be pay per view, it could take adverts etc etc, the BBC could sell programmes cheaply to SBC. After all, if the Dutch and our Hibernian neighbours can pick up the BBC for nada, it seems more than likely that trasmitters covering Ulster and Northumberland would be more than powerful enough to facilitate signals viewable in the Central Belt where some three quarters of the population reside. I will concede that the digital switchover might well make that harder, but I doubt the problems would be insurmountable. If the BBC had a choice between flogging its output to SBC at a knockdown price in order to reach the Highlands and Islands and get some money back, or charging a fee that would not be paid by Edinburgh as most of the population were free-riding, the outcome is blindingly predictable
Meanwhile, quite how shameful would it be to fight a referendum with the slogan 'Stick with the Union so you can watch EastEnders'?
Were Scotland to gain independence, among the other possible trappings, it would seek to have a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation. Seems reasonable - I do not suppose Slovenes tune in to Belgrade broadcast TV any longer, Kievans to Moscow etc etc. The Record quotes that woman Jowell to the effect that a license fee would cost £250 to 'match the output of the BBC'. A number of issues arise - the SBC could be pay per view, it could take adverts etc etc, the BBC could sell programmes cheaply to SBC. After all, if the Dutch and our Hibernian neighbours can pick up the BBC for nada, it seems more than likely that trasmitters covering Ulster and Northumberland would be more than powerful enough to facilitate signals viewable in the Central Belt where some three quarters of the population reside. I will concede that the digital switchover might well make that harder, but I doubt the problems would be insurmountable. If the BBC had a choice between flogging its output to SBC at a knockdown price in order to reach the Highlands and Islands and get some money back, or charging a fee that would not be paid by Edinburgh as most of the population were free-riding, the outcome is blindingly predictable
Meanwhile, quite how shameful would it be to fight a referendum with the slogan 'Stick with the Union so you can watch EastEnders'?
Labels: Act of Union, Media
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on Thursday, February 15, 2007 at 12:00 pm.
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I hadn't realised the Record was so unthinkingly pro-Labour and anti-SNP. I know it's the Scottish arm of the Mirror, but had always assumed that everything north of the border was tinged with a hint of pro-nationalism. I've always been broadly unionist (more through pragmatism than idealism) although when I lived in Edinburgh a few years ago (before the Scottish Parliament arrived) it did feel somehow remote from Westminster. For those in the Hebrides or Orkney and Shetland it must feel a world away (although I suppose it does too if you live in Cornwall).
BTW, I'd be interested to know where Jowell got her numbers from.
Jowell's 'calculation' is taken from the cost of a TV licence in Iceland. I am not making this up.
the end of the BBC was one of the happy side benefits I foresaw C. I don`t see any problem in making the signal impossible to receive exceopt for Licemcefee payers after digital. Its easy enough for sky.
I see the end of the Union as a chance for a flowering of english culture that has been hidde nunder a Liberal post war concensus of self loathing which has suited the celtic fringe all to well.
I think more may chnage than you thing and divergence is the key .Look how the lying socilaist misjudged the effect of devolution
Jowell is too stupid to get up in the morning.
Why do they need a state-run broadcasting company. The US doesn't have one and they are the richest, most successful country in the history of the world. Could it be that state broadcasting dumbs everyone down? Oh, surely not!
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