What Do You Mean, Free?

The BBC reports on the competition: Murdoch attack on ‘dominant’ BBC

News Corporation’s James Murdoch has said that a “dominant” BBC threatens independent journalism in the UK.

The chairman of the media giant in Europe, which owns the Times and Sun, also blamed the UK government for regulating the media “with relish”.

“The expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision,” he told the Edinburgh Television Festival.

The scope of the BBC’s activities and ambitions was “chilling”, he added.

Organisations like the BBC, funded by the licence fee, as well as Channel 4 and Ofcom, made it harder for other broadcasters to survive, he argued.
…

Mr Murdoch said free news on the web provided by the BBC made it “incredibly difficult” for private news organisations to ask people to pay for their news.

“It is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it,” he said.

News Corporation has said it will start charging online customers for news content across all its websites.

Jimmy has just noticed the major flaw in his Dad’s plan to make enough money to keep the creditors at bay in the over-leveraged News Corp mess – everyone has to charge, or no one will pay.

Where do these people come up with this concept of a “free Internet”? My DSL provider doesn’t provide free anything, and reminds me every month about the cost. My computers weren’t free. Most of the software I use isn’t free. This site isn’t free.

That the BBC doesn’t charge you to use their site, may make the visit free to you, but they carry advertising now to generate cash flow to supplement the service provided as part of the license fee that television owners pay in Britain. I know that that was a real charge from having spent time in Britain well before Rupert Murdoch and the forces of evil arrived.

Large businesses making over-leveraged purchases were part of the reason for the current worldwide economic problems that have the depressed the advertising market for all forms of media. Being expected to pay for bad decisions is part of the system called capitalism. Nobody told them to pay more than things were worth by borrowing on everything they owned, they did that on their own. Now they have to pay the bill.