OFF: Freeedom of Speech

[M Holmes]

Paul Mather writes:

> But, I will go on record and say I appreciate the BBC infinitely more
> since being in the USA than when I lived in Blighty.  To be honest, I'd
> swap any channel I get here for the BBC in a heartbeat.  You never miss
> the water until the well runs dry.

Not that I generally love the idea of institutions that extort money
from the hardworking taxpayer but I gotta agree. The free to air TV in
the US is dire. Unless you pay for cable there it's so choc full of
adverts that it's impossible to watch a complete programme. I noted that
an episode of "24" took an hour in the US, but once the ads had been
clipped by the BBC, it was 41 minutes including 2 minutes of "Previously
on 24..." and titles.

Like everyone else, I found myself channel hopping with the remote and
seeing 8 minutes each of several programmes until I switch off in
frustration.

FoFP