Licenced to Kill

So the Government has decreed that the TV Licencing fee shall decrease in real-terms over the next seven years.  A move that was declared to be in line with a “tough spending round” for HMG departments, n.b. these are not ‘Tory cuts’.

Fine, I say.

Yes, it was silly for the BBC to agree to a new charter, and all the requirements that entails, before it had secured funding.  But a large chunk of money has been put aside within the BBC budget for additional projects relating to the transformation to digital TV and the analogue switch-off.

Extra-ordinary costs! you doubtless say.  How can the Licence fee payers be expected to pay for the jump across to digital?

Well, they might not have to.  The analogue switch-off will free up lots of prime real-estate in the UHF spectrum.  This time around the telcos aren’t going to get their fingers burned again after the 3G fiasco, but the auction of the spare frequencies should still raise a pretty penny.  Brown wasn’t planning on keeping all that money to himself, was he?

Let the Beeb / Channel 4 / ITV / 5 keep the dosh raised from the analogue auction and make them plough it into assisting folks with digiboxes and new digital programming.

Just so long as it’s not more Robin Hood.

AFI 100 Films

Last night I watched the very enjoyable Annie Hall, a film that rivals Duck Soup for the sheer rapidity of laughs from the central character.  Everytime I find a film particularly interesting, it is always fun to look at it’s IMDB and Wikipedia entries.  In doing so today, I noticed Annie Hall appears high on the America Film Institute’s Top 100 polls for overall best (#31), laughs (#4), passions (#11), songs (#90), and quotes (#55). [Did no one else find the frequent sight of Woody Allen in bed scary, I wonder?]

These AFI polls were conducted last year (2005) and, while I agree with the appearance of Annie Hall in those top 100s, some of the other listings are simply weird and a lot about the viewing public can be read into the entries…

1. Take the ‘100 Cheers‘, i.e., the most inspiring movies.  A lot of movies appearing on the list, I admit, are quite inspiring, but what makes them good films are their cautionary tales that often end in disaster:
   • Bridge on the River Kwai (#14)?
   • The Right Stuff (#19)?  Grissom’s vessel “failing” on re-entry, most of the surviving original test-pilots being sidelined, and then Grissom being burned to death because the removal of explosive latches that failed for him at the end of M4.  Cheery stuff indeed.
   • Lawrence of Arabia (#30)?  The disasterous occupation of Damascus after the ‘traumatised’ Lawrence orders the Tafas massacre and his subsequent removal by the Army.
   • 2001?  A Beautiful Mind? Chariots of Fire? [I just noticed that all but one of these is based on a real story; what does that tell you about the world?]
2. And then there’s the 100 Quotes!
   • Why have “Plastics” (#42) above “Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs. Robinson?” (#63)
   • Why no Duck Soup? [it was nominated three times in the 400 nominations]
   • Why a silly Keaton quote from Annie Hall (#55)? [there were two Alvy quotes nominated]
   • Interestly, “Excellent”, “We’re not worthy!”, and “One Million Dollars!” didn’t make the Top 100, which shows you how high-brow the vote was.