Dear BBC,
You should let anybody in the world give you money for a high-quality stream of your broadcasts.
You require licensing fees of UK viewers, to pay for the content you produce. This is perfectly sensible and fair. But for some reason, you won’t take money from anyone outside the UK. This is probably due to a stupid decision made by some lawyer at some point. You should revisit that decision.
I watched the BBC via an illegal stream throughout the Olympics, since watching #NBCFail’s cringe-inducing coverage made me want to pound rail spikes through my skull. I would have happily paid you for a legal stream. But since you won’t take my money, I watched anyway, and you got nothing.
Simple question: wouldn’t you rather get something?
In 2014, I will be watching your coverage of the next Olympics. You can choose whether I give you money for a legal stream, or whether I keep my money and watch an illegal stream. I hope you make a sensible decision.
Make it easy for honest people to be honest, and they will be. Make it hard, and they won’t be. It’s as simple as that. Take our money. Please. We want to give it to you, and support your excellent programming. We’ll watch it whether you let us or not. We’ll pay you for it if you allow us to. We won’t if you don’t.
I didn’t like NBC’s medal count summary (and I suppose that applied to all of the major American networks). I did not like the implication: “winning a gold medal wasn’t enough! We have to win MOAR medals than the other competing countries!”
Where was Jim McKay during this Olympics? I miss his sportscasting.