The Telly

Any Anglophile is of course besotted with the offerings of British telly. We get the occasional gem on PBS. BBCAmerica on rare occasions decides to depart from its "all repeats all the time" format to actually show something worth watching. These examples, are, sadly, few and far between. What's a poor Anglophile to do? Well, there is a wonderful alternative available. The Telly website offers the ability to subscribe to a service which will allow users to watch live British TV. It is a bit expensive to set up, but then there is a relatively inexpensive monthly fee of around $100 to watch 40 British stations on your computer. The user is also responsible for paying the yearly British TV license fee of around $280.

The great thing is that you can try out the service for 24 hours for $20. I did this today and it is wonderful! You only need to download the free SlingPlayer software and soon you're up and running! There is an online menu that makes browsing all available programs very easy. I was viewing the broadcast over a wireless network, and I had absolutely no problems with it. The entire process was amazingly quick and easy. Now to start my savings account to pay for the full subscription . . .

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Now that's uncalled for!

In a sad decision, the powers that be at Eastenders (bless 'em) have apparently decided that Wellard the dog is getting up there in doggy years and must be killed off. Over the years, many characters and story lines have stretched the bounds of credibility, so it seems odd that they would suddenly decide that poor Wellard has outlived his/her usefulness. Still, the poor thing has been passed around to nearly everyone on the square at one time or another, so maybe s/he would be happier in that great dog house in the sky. RIP Wellard.

On another topic, Promo Magazine this month has an article titled, "51st State? Americanization of Britain Nearly Complete." The article suggests that due to the recession in the U.S., American-based companies are eager to expand overseas. While it is sometimes nice, as a traveler, to experience the comforts of home, surely the "U.S. annexation of the U.K., the proverbial 51st state" is taking things a bit far. Too bad things aren't moving in the other direction, with the easier availability of British-based goods for us Anglophiles stranded far, far away. We can't even get decent TV programs on the laughably inane "BBCAmerica." While I must admit that I've hardly ever seen the BBC, I somehow doubt that it shows the same 3 programs over and over again. I wouldn't think alienating your core audience is the best business model, but it's what has kept BBCAmerica going for years. That they would cancel Eastenders, a hugely popular program, for endless repeats of home improvement and antique shows is their most shining example of "giving the audience what they want." Not to mention the insane decision to show a repeat of the AMERICAN program "Dancing with the Stars" and it's enough to make any Anglophile's tea boil! I can only hope that the merger between XM satellite radio (which I have) and Sirius occurs before the Americanization of BBC Radio 1 (available on Sirius, but not on XM) is complete.

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