wrote in message
...
The related thread about Freeview not being up to much...mentioned why
not a film channel. Then someone said, well, uh, the cost. But what
about the MASSIVe amount of light entertainment and films that the BBC
has. Why don't the BBC set up a freeview film/light entertainment
channel?

There was a time when BBC1/ITV1 showed a large number of high quality films
(and football). But an increasing amount has now been held back for the
subscription channels and broadcast encrypted.

This is probably more profitable for the Hollywood moguls. Free-2-View &
unencrypted is becoming a difficult concept for these gentlemen. The BBC
will be lucky to buy more than a few scraps for the future. The loss of '24'
series 3 is an example of stuff now is now withheld by uncle Rupert (head of
20th Century Fox and father of....).

But yes it would have been nice if TCM had materialised. But at least you do
have Bid-Down/Price-Up TV to get you through those long winter nights...

Oh and as for the BBC's wonderful portfolio of almost everything which could
easily fill up a channel or 3. Well the government has effectively forced
them to sell them off to JVs with Flextech etc. Not a problem if you already
paying uncle Rupert his kingly ransom every month.

--
Stuart