All that Jaz

Does anyone know the political and financial reasons why Al Jazeera
occupies one of the prized HD slots on UK terrestrial TV? Its presence
seems to have little to do with proving the public with the best
possible service.

Bill

On 29/12/2013 16:12, Bill Wright wrote:
Does anyone know the political and financial reasons why Al Jazeera
occupies one of the prized HD slots on UK terrestrial TV? Its presence
seems to have little to do with proving the public with the best
possible service.

Bill



because they paid for it.

--
Gareth.
That fly.... Is your magic wand.

On Sun, 29 Dec 2013 16:12:21 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Does anyone know the political and financial reasons why Al Jazeera
occupies one of the prized HD slots on UK terrestrial TV? Its presence
seems to have little to do with proving the public with the best
possible service.

How do you know? I think it provides good quality journalism with no
obvious signs of bias. Educating and informing the public follows the
best traditions of broadcasting and a plurality of sources of news can
only be a good thing.

Bill Wright wrote:

Does anyone know [...] why Al Jazeera occupies one of the prized HD
slots on UK terrestrial TV?

Prized? AIUI COM7 isn't full yet, COM8 is (or will soon be) available,
channels like Five and Film4 that arguably would benefit more from HD
aren't queueing up to pay ...

In message , Scott
writes
On Sun, 29 Dec 2013 16:12:21 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Does anyone know the political and financial reasons why Al Jazeera
occupies one of the prized HD slots on UK terrestrial TV? Its presence
seems to have little to do with proving the public with the best
possible service.

How do you know? I think it provides good quality journalism with no
obvious signs of bias. Educating and informing the public follows the
best traditions of broadcasting and a plurality of sources of news can
only be a good thing.

There is quite a lot of alternative news and other items on Al Jazeera
(and on Russia Today) - stuff you (will) never get on the BBC or ITV.
--
Ian

"the dog from that film you saw" wrote in
message ...
On 29/12/2013 16:12, Bill Wright wrote:
Does anyone know the political and financial reasons why Al Jazeera
occupies one of the prized HD slots on UK terrestrial TV? Its presence
seems to have little to do with proving the public with the best
possible service.

Bill



because they paid for it.#

and more to the point

they offered to pay more than the next contestant, for it

In article ,
Bill Wright wrote:

Does anyone know the political and financial reasons why Al Jazeera
occupies one of the prized HD slots on UK terrestrial TV?

That's capitalism for you.

-- Richard

Scott wrote:
On Sun, 29 Dec 2013 16:12:21 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Does anyone know the political and financial reasons why Al Jazeera
occupies one of the prized HD slots on UK terrestrial TV? Its presence
seems to have little to do with proving the public with the best
possible service.

How do you know? I think it provides good quality journalism with no
obvious signs of bias. Educating and informing the public follows the
best traditions of broadcasting and a plurality of sources of news can
only be a good thing.

You are obviously a Reithian, and to some extent so am I. "Don't give
them what they want, give them what (we the intelligensia) believe they
need."

However if you think the masses should be offered diverse news sources I
would have thought you'd want to spread the sources across the political
spectrum. I wonder if Fox News would be prepared to produce a UK
version, to balance the BBC News? Nothing too extreme of course:
'Telegraph' to balance 'Guardian'.

I wonder where Al Jaz would have figured if one of the TV listings mags
had conducted a poll of their readers: What extra channels would like
like in HD?

I must say Al Jaz's picture quality puts some other HD channels to shame.

It remains though, astonishing to someone brought up with the principles
of public service broadcasting that a minority interest foreign channel
gets such prominence.

Bill

Andy Burns wrote:
Bill Wright wrote:

Does anyone know [...] why Al Jazeera occupies one of the prized HD
slots on UK terrestrial TV?

Prized? AIUI COM7 isn't full yet, COM8 is (or will soon be) available,
channels like Five and Film4 that arguably would benefit more from HD
aren't queueing up to pay ...


And yet according to OFCOM spectrum is so very scarce. Like gold it is.
Hence we have no mux 7 or 8 on many transmitters for fear of CCI.

I think (incidentally) that Five will have to provide free HD before too
long. As more and more people get HD tellys they are going to lose
audience. I don't bother looking what's on Five (except I look for
fishing progs for father) because I can't see the point of watching SD
when there's more HD progs on than I have time for.

Bill

tim..... wrote:

they offered to pay more than the next contestant, for it

And yet those airwaves belong to the people.

Bill