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From: oaf@mit-vax.UUCP (Oded Feingold)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Paying for TV programs, here and in UK
Message-ID: <4741@mit-vax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 17-Feb-85 14:48:36 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-vax.4741
Posted: Sun Feb 17 14:48:36 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Feb-85 20:11:35 EST
References: <326@abnji.UUCP>
Reply-To: oaf@mit-vax.UUCP (Oded Feingold)
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 43
Keywords: BBC coercion commercials libertarian wonderbread

>zed**************************************************alpha<
[I'll respond to the stuff in caps.]
		You must buy a license to use the TV, however.
		This is because the BBC is supported by these
		fees, as well as gov't subsidy...  The BBC as 
		a result does not require commercials.
			GIVEN A CHOICE OF PAYING $75/YEAR 
			...OR WATCHING 16-20 MINUTES OF
			COMERCIALS/HOUR, I'D PAY THE MONEY.  
If you lives in the United States you watches the commercials AND you
pays the money.  This is not voluntary --- the cost of commercials is
built in to the price you pay for cars, beers, toothpaste, Wonder Bread
and the other necessities of life.  The folks at Advertising Age can
tell you the amount spent last year for TV commercials --- divide that
by the number of people in the US and you have the per capita
commercials tax.  The last time I looked (in 1977 or so) it was about
$120 for TV, $25 for radio.  Presumably those numbers have escalated...
These are fairly stupendous figures - we could feed Ethiopia and maybe
buy out the Russians with money like that.  [That's direct cost of
commercials --- what the TV people get paid, I think.  Presumably the
advertisers expect a return on investment, so the real tax is higher.]
All you Libertarians out there must immediately stop buying toothpaste
or suffer credential cavities. :<)	[smiley face - big nose...]

At the risk of sounding like a 6th-grade schoolteacher, what do you think
is sold by TV anyway?  Look where the money goes - the advertisers pay the
networks and producers, and the latter deliver the goods - YOU.  You are
the product, and it doesn't matter a whit whether you watch the damn show
or not - you're still paying for it in the rest of your life.  (Relative
popularity of shows merely sets the rates...)  Talk about coercion!

Note that BBC is free to produce a high-quality, not particularly
popular show.  It won't lose revenue by it.  Unlike us...

Give me the British system any day.  (Too bad they have such abominable
accents.)
			       ----------
Oded Feingold				
	MIT AI Lab	545 Tech Sq.	Cambridge, Ma. 02139
	mitvax!oaf.UUCP	617-253-8598	oaf%oz@MIT-MC.ARPA
			       ----------
Apropos:  Gun control, TV control, and the battle among truth, beauty
and the American way.