Nice work if you can get it........

Nomad has recently been thinking of looking for a new job.

Perhaps this fits the bill. The salary seems reasonable for a part time position.

"the BBC and its impartiality"

Just to be clear, the BBC is not biased. The Director of BBC News herself says this (kudos to Guido). It must be true.

In order to make sure that no one misunderstands the situation she has told her employees to stop tweeting thier personal opinions. Suppose analysis of tweets showed that everyone at the BBC was biased against, lets say Israel (purely for the sake of argument obviously), why then people might imagine that in some way the editorial judgement of the BBC was influenced by the personal opinions of the people who work there. No sir, the professionals at the BBC leave their personal opinions behind when they enter into the sacred halls. They do, dont they?

Not a knockout blow, but.......

Despite our optimism the BBC has not been made to suffer an immediate 25% cut. The 340 million of extra commitments is not quite 10% of the Beebs 3.6 billion budget. Still the clever bit looks to be freezing the TV Licence for 6 years. Assuming that inflation runs at 3% a year that would correspond to a cut of almost 20% over the period. That is a 27% cut in the budget by 2016.

So not a knockout blow then but a commitment to steady attrition. Attrition which will be enhanced if YOU do not pay for a TV Licence. That is what this blog is all about. We may or may not be able to get rid of the BBC, but our cause is advanced by every pound that does not go thier way.

Jeremy Hunt strikes

Just when it seemed that we were in for a long wait to see what would happen, the culture secretary hits the BBC hard. He has not gone for changing the licence fee but at a stroke could reduce thier budget by 25%. Nice work Jeremy.

Blu Ray Google TV Thingy

Sony are not just making TVs that run Android, they are also making a Blu Ray player. See the spec below. Update Nomads Christmas list accordingly will you.

Sony Internet TV Blu-ray Disc Player NSZ-GT1

Available in October for about $399.99

• Google TV built-in

• Seamlessly search across your television & Internet for content

• Surf the web while watching TV using Dual View

• Upgradeable Google TV platform

• Blu-ray Disc playback capability

• Download apps from Android Market (*coming in early 2011)

• Superior processing power with Intel Inside

• Easy-to-use RF QWERTY keypad remote with integrated optical mouse

• Link to select mobile phones (coming this fall)

• Built-in Wi-Fi

• One HDMI input, one HDMI output and four USB inputs

Amen!

When Britains best blogger writes, we err.... post a link.

Of course Daniel is correct that we are best served by diverse sources of media. However there is no free market for broadcasting in the UK. The TV Licence provides the BBC with a monopoly position rather similar to that enjoyed by Lord Portland who purchased the soap monopoly from Charles the First in the 1630s. It is worth noting that Lord Portland provided a source of revenue to the Crown; the BBC does not.

There will not be a level playing field until the TV Licence is abolished.

Here in time for Christmas

Obviously you are wondering what to buy Nomad for Christmas. We think that Sonys new HD Television with Android TV will fit the bill.

Admittedly it probably is not available in the UK yet. We can but hope.

Meanwhile...

Of course if you really dont want Google TV. There is always this.

Logitech get in first!

We are all agog waiting for Sony to announce thier new hardware, an event which is planned for later this week.

However it seems that Logitech have stolen their thunder by announcing the Logitech Revue, a set top box which runs Android TV.

There is considerable confusion over the correct terminology. As we understand it Google TV is a web based service that searches for video (in the same way that Google searches for text). Android TV is an operating system. Hopefully the two will work together!

Under investigation

Boy is Nomad in trouble. He is being 'investigated' by TV Licensing. An interesting aspect of this 'investigation' is that it has yet to uncover Nomad's name; information which is readily available on the electoral roll (amongst other places).

Bluster? We could not possibly comment.