World-class service?

I said some weeks ago that I was going to start complaining about stuff and I started in earnest last week, with two complaints. One to the local council about them not paying for plastic recycling, and the other to the BBC about the lack of digital terrestrial in the area. I thought I would post the correspondence so far as part of my blog, so the rest of the world can see that whilst the BBC might have an enviable reputation across the globe for its high quality programmes, some aspects of the technical system are a bit crap to say the least, as is the case with much of British infrastructure!


To the BBC 23 January 2007

Can you explain to me why we are continually badgered to 'go digital' when our area is not scheduled to 'go digital' until September 2011?

We cannot get freeview reception in our area, so will have to fork out for s sky box and dish if we wish to view digital programmes. And yet, the technical quality of the programmes we can get seems to be continually getting poorer with a plethora of ‘digital’ glitches evident on a daily basis. I would love someone at the BBC to explain this to me as I am sick of those stupid adverts saying it's easy to 'do digital' Spare us!

From the BBC 23 Jan 07

Dear Ms C

Thank you for your e-mail.

The BBC recognises some sections of our audience do not currently have the opportunity to get digital television through their aerial.

The digital promotional trails are to inform the public of what digital services are provided by the BBC and to help them prepare for the eventual switchover. We cannot currently expand digital terrestrial television further as this would cause interference to existing analogue services. Once the analogue television service has been switched off, we will have enough frequencies available to extend the digital television signals to those areas still to receive it.

We do appreciate you taking the time to make us aware of your views on the use of our digital trails and rest assured your comments have been fully registered on our audience log which is made available to senior BBC management.

Thank you again for contacting the BBC.

Regards
Tony Brown
BBC Information


To the BBC 28 Jan 07
Thank you for your prompt response to my query. I would like to respond in turn with a number of further queries and comments:

Firstly, Since I received your e-mail, I have been discussing the subject with friends in the area, and we all agree that, given the fact that we will not have a full digital terrestrial service until the analogue signal is switched off, it is grossly unfair that we pay the same license fee as people who receive a great deal more channels than we do. I can only receive 4 channels with a decent signal. When I first moved here eight and a half years ago, I could get a not-too-bad picture on channel 5 from the TV set upstairs which has its own booster aerial, but this has since waned rendering channel 5 unwatchable. Is there no possibility of at least improving the reception for terrestrial while we wait for ‘the big switch on’ (sic)?

Secondly, I recently discovered that we taxpayers subsides the commercial terrestrial channels - this came as big shock to me as I thought the revenue came from advertising, and I am appalled that this is case and I reckon not many people know about it.

Thirdly, I must say that I believe that the BBC does make some excellent programmes and some of the high quality programmes – particularly nature documentaries and costume dramas - obviously have a world-wide appeal. Given the ,money-making potential of these programmes, why are we paying a license fee at all?


I would appreciate your time in responding to these comments.

Regards