June 30, 2004
BBC license renewal
The BBC has set out its stall for license renewal, in terms that cunningly prejudge much of the debate and confound the rest of it in meaningless phrases.
The BBC 's mastery at this sort of exercise is breathtaking. First of all the claim to maintain the license is couched in jargon only insiders can understand.
This discourages casual questioning. And then it is interspersed with statements like: "Find the best new talent and defy standard programme categories".
The author (or authors) has yoked together two different ideas. Find the best new talent. Oh, yes, I understand. That's hiring Graham Norton from Channel Four. But as for "defy standard programme categories". What? How do you defy a standard programme category? Musical news?? Who is doing the defying? One assumes the BBC itself is defining these "standard programme categories". Is it defying itself?
It is easy to tear up this dishrag prose. A cynical reader would be more impressed by the subtle moves the BBC has made to head off one of the most impressive and cogent critiques of its status made in the last few years. This is the idea, first proposed, I think by Melvyn Bragg and then picked up by David Elstein's recent report into the funding of the BBC, that the proceeds of the license fee should be made available to be bid for by any broadcaster who was willing to satisfy public service requirements. The BBC, in critiquing this notion, has christened it "top slicing". Not "open access", but "top slicing". The cunning of this is that subsequent authors will have to use this phraseology - reminiscent of a nasty accident with a circular saw - to discuss a perfectly respectable option.
One minor, but telling point. The BBC News Online author, in reporting the press release, reverts in the final paragraph to describing "our role on all platforms as a cultural patron". Note the "our". Even, or especially when reporting itself, the BBC tends to sell a particular line.
My own view is that the license fee should be linked to RPI minus -2% and preserved, at least for ten years. BBC should commission but not produce. This would mean that there was a big boost given to commercial TV production, which would be forced to find co-production elsewhere.
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Getting a new PDA
My old Palm V has given up the ghost.
My problem - I gather - is the same as every other owner of this gadget. After a couple of years the battery won't take a charge, and you can't replace the battery without melting the glue that holds it in.
I want to replace my Palm Pilot. My phone also died last week (an old Nokia 6210 from the same era as the Palm V). So I was looking for two devices. Then I thought that they might combine, and I could get a handset subsidy from my UK operator for the PDA.
I must have:
contact addresses;
bluetooth;
a phone;
nice to have are:
MP3 player;
colour display;
camera;
There is nothing suitable that does all the things I want in the Palm line. The Pocket PC alternatives are bulky and ugly and don't support bluetooth.
After a quick look on Amazon I settle on a Sony Ericsson P900. Fantastic product reviews. My wife has just got a smaller Sony Ericsson T610. She is reasonably pleased.
I bought it online (central London's telephone shops are staffed by people who seemed to have been preselected on the basis of ignorance about the products they sell). Then I have a pang. Because the phone is symbian-based (which is good, as it supports loads of applications) it won't run my favourite - Vindigo. It is a shame, particularly as I am a big fan of the Vindigo application. Vindigo gives you city listings, automatically updated each time you sync your Palm pilot. It has very cool "where is my nearest" functionality, it contains reviews, maps, route plans, and is a steal at $24 a year. I only use London, but it covers a bunch of US cities. Vindigo is the surviving competitor of CitiKey, a Stockholm-based mobile application builder where I used to run product development. In those we had maps and they didn't. But CitiKey imploded (the founders and backers shot each other in a Mexican stand-off) and Vindigo survived.
I send a mail to Vindigo registering that I am leaving. They generously offer to refund my unexpired subscription. Now that is mensch. Please support symbian, guys, and then I wouldn't have to.
To get the phone at a price I can afford I have to leave Orange and join Vodafone. Weird, eh? My friend Michael tells me that Orange's customer service has suffered a decline, and this is borne out by my getting disconnected twice during a routine trip through their multi-layer AVR.
I will report on what the phone is like.
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