As I see it there is only so much money available within the TV entertainment economy. So the public authorities (BBC) have to work within the limits of the TV license revenue, the independents (ITV etc.) have to work within limits of their advertising revenue and the pay to view companies have to operate within the limits of their subscriber and advertising revenue.
So now that we have many channels from which to choose, the cake has to be sliced into smaller pieces. The program producers economise and the result is reality TV programs using B rated has been celebrities which cost a fraction of the cost of a decent kitchen sink, comedy, costume or action drama series using bankable actors. And when they get something half decent they flog it to death by continual repeats (whilst Little Britain has won awards for comedy it was also the most repeated program of 2004). There is also multi company/national collaboration/syndication and that can produce some quality viewing,
For a long time now we have had in the words of Bruce Springsteen \"49 channels and nothing to watch\".
We have a multi TV household with Freeview on almost every TV. But that is as far as I will go. The one TV license allows me and Mrs Hughes to watch as much TV as we want and that we consider our children need. And we can all watch different programs at the same time if we want. When the pay to view companies adopt this business model (i.e. one fee per houshold to watch any program on any TV at the same time) then I may consider Sky, Cable or Top Up TV.
This holiday has seen the family watching classic films, some more than 60 years old, which we have started buying for peanuts on ebay. You can\'t beat it - good stories and good acting even if its black and white.