CHRISTMAS T.V. - rubbish or what?

[Davemetalhead]

Telly was always crap at Christmas, even during the days of just 3 channels. It's just now there's more crap to go around, and more advertising for said crap. TV nowadays has to be on 24 hours a day, unlike 30 years ago when it finished around midnight.

Yes, there were some gems in years gone by - but by 'eck, there was a huge amount of dross too.

[Foxbark]

Well, there's one sure-fire way to protest that actually makes a difference.
DON'T WATCH THE BLOODY THING.
These days technology has blessed us with the internet, on-line gaming, X-Boxes, Playstations,i-players, hard-disc players, DVD collections and box sets etc etc.
The way to hit them is to hit them in the pocket by refusunf to watch it - then the advertisers will go away and the TV execs will get the willies.
- You could even retreat into your book/magazine collection, play sports, go for a walk, do anything.

[Oswald]

Having been fed-up with the rubbish showing on TV about 18 months ago I disconnected my external TV aerial which means that I can't receive TV signals. This have never bothered me because a), I've never missed their cack offerings and b), I don't have to fork out for a TV licence - thus saving me £139 each year.

[haldane4]

Originally Posted by Wendigo

Totally agree, the ONLY thing I wanted to watch was the new Day of The Triffids and I even forgot that. One thing's for sure it WILL be repeated.

You don't want to go there - they turned it into 28 Days Later with plants instead of zombies. And Eddie Izzard as some kind of psychotic master-villain. Oh, and they invented a way of defeating the Triffids - some sort of magic from Zaire, as you would. Unbelievably bad.

The Christmas television is appalling indeed. What rankles with me is that you can go to IMDb and there are over a million films listed on that site - yet we get stuck with the same old same old year after year. UK TV has access to about 200 films which they rotate endlessly. I have the feeling that it's a policy of enforced ignorance - if you deny people access to something, you are in fact censoring their choices, education and entertainment. This is also why Arch-Duke Mendelson's proposed new laws against bit-torrenting are so worrying - it's renewing the censorship over new forms of information and entertainment.

[eelcat]

Now this situation is the reason why so many people in Australia look forward and tune in to the Boxing Day Test Match ( - that's a cricket match for the benefit of our American friends).

[Oswald]

Originally Posted by henryf

This Christmas has to be the worst that I can remember. All this from executives and managers paid large sums of money, and for what?

There are 375 managers employed by the BBC who each received in excess of £100K per year. So if you're wondering where your TV licence money is spent then look no further.

[eelcat]

Australia use to have tv licences but were abolished by Gough Whitlam as an election promise in 1974.
From Wikipedia......
Radio licence fees were introduced in Australia in the 1920s to fund the first privately owned broadcasters which were not permitted to sell advertising. With the formation of the government-owned Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1932 the licence fees were used to fund ABC broadcasts while the privately owned stations were permitted to seek revenue from advertising and sponsorship. Television licence fees were also introduced in 1956 when the ABC began TV transmissions. All licence fees were abolished in 1974 by the Australian Labor Party government led by Gough Whitlam on the basis that the near-universality of television and radio services meant that public funding was a fairer method of providing revenue for government-owned radio and television broadcasters. The ABC has since then been funded by government grants, now totalling around A$800 million a year, and its own commercial activities (merchandising, overseas sale of programmes, etc.).

I guess we don't have as many managers as you guys and can afford to survive on government handouts. But don't get me wrong we still have great quality television on the ABC.

[Oswald]

Originally Posted by eelcat

Australia use to have tv licences but were abolished by Gough Whitlam as an election promise in 1974.

What we need is for one of our political parties to offer the same election promise as Mr. Whitlam did for you back in 1974.

I guess we don't have as many managers as you guys and can afford to survive on government handouts. But don't get me wrong we still have great quality television on the ABC.

If these government handouts work well in Australia then they should also work well here for the BBC.

[billybunter]

I enjoyed radio programs more. But music is my thing. I watched the DVD of the Porridge xmas specials. Brilliant! But back then there was no cable/sky. Which is why tv of yesteryear was so good. It was usually on radio first.

[helgasboy]

Christmas is nothing but a joke! all people care about is presents, They don't care about family get togethers anymore plus the songs are not religous on the radio anymore it's just sickening!