Isn't it about time the government stopped aiding and abetting the BBC's demanding money with menaces?

I noticed these coming in over the past few days, and thankfully it reminded me to restore a hosts.conf file that points certain servers to 127.0.0.1.

The BBC News web site layout doesn't really lend it's self to ad's, it wasn't designed that way. At the time of their layout design it wasn't an issue. So currently, they look cludged in and mess up the whole BBC layout. I am a UK Ex-Pat so used the BBC News site a fair bit, but to be honest it now looks such a mess and leaps about during rendering, I don't think I'll bother. I'll hit another news site.

Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge the advertising, but the way these are tacked in is tacky. The Reg for example, at least seems designed more around it's ads.

The BBC can't avoid that this is a messy afterthought, and it knocks their credibility.

Hi lads,

I've been a fan of the Beeb for many years now, but only the news service -- I never bother with the rest.

This morning I woke to flashy crappy images on the lovely Beeb screen, its enough to make me use another news site.

I subscribe to Sky and get the beeb as standard -- do they not get a cut of this?

if yes, then why should I see all this flashy crap?

Cheers

Con.

Its only taken them 10 years. They were supposed to do this originally (with poor old ICL's cash). If they'd have done it then they'd have earned a shedload of cash and people wouldn't be so taken aback by it now. In fact loads of the commercial stuff they're now finally accepting as necessary for survival were suggested (and developed) by the beeb.com crew back in the day but were killed by the John Birt regime.

But the BBC is not "ad free TV". There are ads for BBC programmes every 30 mins, between every programme. If they replaced their own propaganda with commercial ads of the same duration they could reduce the TV tax significantly

I can only assume that the people who complain about the TV licence fee have never had to subject themselves to "free" TV in other countries. I have found myself shouting, swearing and throwing things at the television when, after being convinced that there surely cannot be enough time left to slip in yet another ad before the end of the programme -they still manage it!!!!!

Anyway, about the topic in hand, the beeb have been reasonably subtle I think. Having said that, if you don't pay the licence, I can't see you've got much cause for complaint. Except me - although based in London my company's external IP address is based in Germany so I get the ads too......

Ah, that explains the white bits at the top of the web page I have started seeing, good old Privoxy working well, ooops I probably shouldn't have said that!!

"I subscribe to Sky and get the beeb as standard -- do they not get a cut of this?

if yes, then why should I see all this flashy crap?"

If you're in the UK and have Sky, you need a TV license. BBC receives nothing from Sky with respect to TV licensing fees.