LOL, no we pay for individual programs. It actually costs me more to watch just EastEnders than it would cost me for the BBC license fee (to watch everything the BBC produces) in the UK.
the mad thing is we have to pay the licence fee even if we only want to watch commercial tv. No choice. Have a tv? you must pay the fee. It's a whacking £1k fine if you dont have it.
There are many of us over here who have thought the BBC's business model is mad for a long time. While they license a few shows individually, they won't allow Americans to buy in - like with a pay-per-view channel. We keep seeing reports about how the BBC is short on money and cutting salaries, etc, but there are probably millions of people here who would buy in if given the opportunity - which would take some burden off license payers in the UK. There is a long-standing audience for British TV shows here, and they have ignored it.
There rumor is, now, that they will start allowing Americans to buy into their iPlayer by the end of the year, but they are limiting the audience by doing it as an exclusive for iPad. That's some progress, but it's still limiting both the people who can use it and the amount of money they could take it. For years, people have been telling them that if they had a premium channel here (like HBO), it would be a huge success, and make them a ton of money. I have no idea why they don't do it as all the content is already created, all they have to do is broadcast it. They're nuts.
And speaking of nuts - sadder ones - and back to the apocalypse: There was a story on the news last night about a follower of that preacher who started this rapture thing, a 60 year old retired MTA worker, who spent most of his retirement savings ($140K) buying posters for the subways and brochures to have out in Times Square, warning people to get ready for the rapture. He was standing there in Times Square at 6PM, all forlorn when it didn't happen.
