Ofcom, although receiving government funds is not government run.

We know that. It has a sort of structure similar to the courts.

Fact – Channel 4 is NOT a government channel
Fact – Ofcom, although receiving government funds is not government run.

AGW is a con. Look at the facts and compare with the rhetoric.

No trinifar TV is shit is oz. In fact I gave up watching it because it’s so crappy.

It’s like the US was in 1990.

In the US at least HBO etc would turn into soft porn channels after 10 pm. they can’t even do that here. They also run ads on cable. What’s worse is that if you pirate cable they actually arrest you here, so i would never try that. I don’t think I ever paid for full cable in the US as like everyone else I felt I had a god given right to it for free.

Terje, stick to gold. Your ignorance is showing. The ABC has been broadcasting two channels for over a year.

There is also a handful of data casting channels including four that broadcast from parliament (House, Senate and committees) on digital 44. They are provided by Broadcast Australia, part of Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group.

Then there’s the 50 or so channels available on Foxtel.

I might add that the UK also has a large number of channels. That doesn’t alter the fact that the government owns the BBC and operates a “truth” tribunal, neither of which is justified.

SBS – government funded with some private sponsorship
ABC – government funded
SEVEN – private
NINE – private
TEN – private
34 – community

In the move to HDTV there will be more channels. However the government has been careful to ensure that we don’t have any new competitors. For instance on HDTV the ABC will run two channels.

SBS and ABC also run radio stations. As far as I know none of the private TV operators are allowed to run radio stations.

Perhaps for the tiny reason that they are not the same thing, Terje. One is advertising while the other can’t help but be polemical or perceived to be.

The real problem in broadcasting is that the licensing system restricts access and the government spends too much on the task.

In addition to having a government broadcaster with 15% of the media market?

If there were 200 channels I wouldn’t much care if the government broadcast parliament on one of them.

Perhaps, with a fixed camera that was on 24/7 and we wouldn’t have to spend money a full time crew. I might go for that.

There’s one way to have lefties support the sale of the ABC. Have Andrew Bolt run the editorial and news content You’d get unanimous support from the left faster than you can say AGW.

That proposition works in theory but the problem is always the practice. There’s no way in hell a government station would be allowed to fail which is the implied threat in the private market.
If they lost viewers the government pump would invariably be there ready to fill up the tank again.

I agree government broadcasters ought to be privatised, but for economic reasons rather than free speech.

If government broadcasters were obliged to compete for audience numbers, they’d be accountable enough without a tribunal. Free speech would be safe because audiences could switch off and advertisers walk away. Viewer numbers are way down at 60 Minutes due to so many beat ups. But it doesn’t matter, because we aren’t all paying for it.