egafd.com

You raise some good points.

Making TV programs is expensive. Making good TV programs is even more
expensive.

When we had only 3, 4 or 5 channels the companies could afford to spend
a bit on making the programs because they knew they would either get a
large audience (BBC) or lots of advertisers (ITV etc).

Now we have "hundreds" of channels and most of them have got no
money, no advertisers, and no audience.

So they show the cheapest programs they can, be it infantile phone-ins, old
black and white movies, or old TV from the 70s and 80s.

When I skim through the Sky channels I see programs listed like Blind Date,
Blankety Blank, Bullseye, 321, and other really dated programs.

Although there are some quality channels, like some of the documentary
channels like UK History, they become totally unwatchable because of the
advert breaks.

Many have an advert break after 5 minutes and I often give up there and then.

Modern TV really is a case of more is not better.

The other rather ironic thing is that before sky we had:

BBC where you had no adverts but paid a license, or ITV where it was free but you have adverts.

But Sky has now managed to set it up as follows:

You pay a large license fee every month (52 pounds in my case) AND you have adverts.

To be honest the only reason I pay Sky 52 pounds a month is for the football (which Sky are very aware of).

It is cheaper to pay that and not go to any live matches, than to take my son to see ONE football match a month.

And as we support Aston Villa that is about 50 pounds for two tickets.

You're right, Owl. A massive con indeed.

The whole SKY organisation also has a horrible, big-corporate-business, money-grabbing, greedy, rip-off-the-punters smell about it too. (Okay they have to make money, but hopefully you know what I mean).

I first signed up to SKY circa 1992, when I paid GBP 19.99 for EVERYTHING that they then had to offer - including the movie channels AND Sky Sports.

Prices continued to rise steadily and steadily - as more and more shite channels came online and the quality of the existing ones steadily decreased in line with their rising subscription charges.

A few years ago - I think it was when they switched over to digital - I finally cancelled the movies and sports package because I was watching so little of it, it was hardly worth my while. But I kept their basic / entertainment package (or whatever it is they call it in their sales blurb) because I live in Germany and enjoy my regular dose of UK news & documentaries, so for me Sky is a necessary evil (although I have to subscribe to it via a UK address).

I agree entirely with what you say though, and if I lived in the UK I'd take great delight in telling them to fuck off and then sign up to some cheaper cable or freeview package instead.

Good point Flat_Eric but if you do get to live in the UK don't subscribe to the Telewest con instead of Sky, it's even worse.

Sky do what the do because they know they have punters by the balls.

Things may change in a few years when they lose the football rights but the company replacing them will do just the same.

I agree its all a con and i can see the point about the football but the only way to get better value for money and better programmes is not to subscribe and to switch the telly off every time a shite programme comes on which is most of the time and then if the commercial stations see their viewing figures dropping they may start to make some decent programmes instead of the crap they just keep turning out and expect us to watch ie: Big Brother, the BBC of course is another matter because they think they have a licence to make shit programmes and they do this very well so maybe its time that us licence payers had more say in what programmes the BBC broadcast as its our fucking money that pays for them not the pigheaded cunts that make them who think they own the BBC !annoyed!

Kind of follows on from this really. I have just moved and want to install my phone, broadband and possibly a TV package. Can anyone suggest the best, cheapest or other deals out there. I could possibly do without the TV because I live opposite a pub now that shows the footie and phone call wise all I need is a line for access purposes. Have a cheap rate thing all set up to go on it. So who does the cheapest broadband deal or complete package ?

Bigoldowl wrote:

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Excellent point, Owl.

Indeed that's what I find myself doing increasingly these days, given that (a) more and more of my favourite older shows are now appearing on DVD and (b) the period of time between progs being broadcast on TV and then appearing on DVD seems to be getting shorter and shorter.

That way I can watch what I want, when I want and WITHOUT the cuts and ad breaks every 5 minutes (many of the cuts being made to squeeze in more ads, of course).