41 pounds? that is a bargain for paid entertainment

even when the pound was double the USD it would be better than what they pay here for cable

our basic rate is around $30-$40 "for the first six months" (there is the occasional $19/mo for three months) after which it goes to regular rate. if I added TV to my internet I'd get a price of about the same as now for first few months and then increase to almost 100 without any premium stuff... some folks add packages (sports especially but premium kids is growing) that bump the price way over $100 a month (I've heard rumors of over $200/mo but that HAS to be TOO MUCH!)

I know UK is use to "FREE" TV (paid by tax on the TV's?) via BBC but if you want 100's of channels them premium cable is the way to go (the dishes don't work for north facing apartments/flats)

your getting ripped man. Basic cable in the Tampa Bay area is under 10 bucks.

Originally posted by Wildrat:

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your getting ripped man. Basic cable in the Tampa Bay area is under 10 bucks.

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and YOU'RE ripped off from back when it came to YOUR schooling
meaning THEY'RE ripping YOUR parents off on THEIR education funds

remember when it means two words it needs to be contracted

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as for YOUR area having cheaper service.... that's what happens when multiple companies compete for YOUR money. YOU'RE enjoying the fruit of a competitive market.

since sky almost has a monopoly in the market THEY'RE lucky THEY don't have to pay four times as much

I've got the full package, but including Sky HD subs its costs at least £51 a month. Downloading is great when you've got just 2 tuners recording most days & you can see other programs online. I hope Anytime goes online in future so we don't need a PC - then it would act like a 3rd tuner instead of conflicting with existing recordings that makes them fail. Sky is amazing for HD content but films repeat too often for the die-hard film addict.

Originally posted by qazwiz:

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I know UK is use to "FREE" TV (paid by tax on the TV's?) via BBC but if you want 100's of channels them premium cable is the way to go (the dishes don't work for north facing apartments/flats)

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We pay TV License Fee if we have a TV (you HAVE to pay this). This then goes to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to many of their + our channels (we pay & have a say in how its run) which are: BBC1, BBC HD, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC News, & BBC Parliament.

All advert free if you don't count the trailers for their own programs inbetween all the main programs. Don't get carried away with those channels, lots of repeats that does my head in.

thats exactly what I meant champman

you are taxed to pay for the shows that you see

the big money comes when your show is paid for by the ads it supports which in turn is due to the viewers of the show

you call 4 shows a season (two hour shows)
we call that a month of a weakly show (I spelled that correctly)

here if there are only four shows you don't see another season because there wasn't anyone watching the show

and while some cable series are for as little as six episodes to get started I cannot think of any show that started with just four shows...

even Columbo started with six and it was "paired" with three other sets of six making a 24 show run for the weekly mystery movie (McCloud, McMillian and wife, and Banachek)


also, the tax paid shows are very low budget. have you ever seen our "Deal or No Deal" ???

I like game shows, and BBC has a plethora of them, but they are all shoestring budget. card board "lollypops" (the UK lollypop is the sign a traffic guard, called lollypop lady in UK, holds) and hand controlled display boards when here they would have to be electronic, and displaying the company logo of the company that "donated" them, with a bit of money for the privilege

Don't get me wrong, I like BBC games very much but I think BBC could try a few tricks to up the prize money,,, and product placement is a very likely way

@qazwiz

When it comes to making original shows (quite a lot is generated by selling the rights all over the world) we have to make it with a set budget as us licence payers have a right that we get our monies worth. But once it is successful, they don't up the shows with the additional money and leave it to stagnate.

But, you can't say the BBC have little money to spend, they get an annual income of £3.5 billion ($5.1 billion) which I suppose isn't that much once divided up amongst the many stations. Compare that to Sky who spend £1 billion on UK made shows, so it quite obvious you reap the rewards as long as your willing to make risks.

At the moment, HD channels/content is accelerating very fast with the most HD channels being on Sky. Hopefully its not too long before we have as many as the US, we current have 32 HD channels - 18 are Sky's.