And I thought this type of news only came on April 1st ..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/11/nbroad111.xmlInternet service providers could face a new tax to help pay for unprofitable programmes shown on ITV and Channel 4, which may in turn lead to higher broadband charges for consumers.
The levy could be imposed by the Government on the service providers and websites within the next few years, under proposals published yesterday about the future funding of "public service" programmes which make little or no money for commercial broadcasters.
The proposals were made by Ofcom, the telecoms watchdog, which insisted that any new charges would fall on the companies providing the goods and services - although the firms could pass on these extra costs to their customers.
I think such an idea is downright immoral, "netizens" in the UK are already forking out for phone lines they dont need to ensure they can obtain broadband and pay tax on both items and I,m not even mentioning the television licence fee UK citizens pay already that goes into powering the BBC to ensure the government has a broadcasting arm at our expense.
What concerns me the most is why should people wanting to turn away from traditional media sources such as terrestrial television be penalised for doing so, why should any of us write them out a blank cheque when they provide little or nothing online ?
In short its not the job of the UK public to subsidise a purely commercial business operation.
