Norman Ralph

It seems that my hard work at O2 over the last year and a bit is about to pay off. I mean this in the purely literal sense as it is bonus time at work. I managed to get an excellent apraisal and I am in line to receive a pretty sizable lump sum! I have decided that this shall be put towards building a relatively starter style home entertainment system. I am new to the whole thing and I have a really small house so I have not gone for anything too flash and a couple of items are still up for discussion – namely whether I sghould get separate games console and Blu-Ray player or plump for the PS3. A lot of articles and pundits have repeatedly opted for the PS3 as the idea source for a low-end system but I still have my reservations about its ability as a console. I will be looking to upgrade they system with a larger TV (ideally full HD) when I have a bigger living room. I fancy adding a full HD projector at some point for those move and sports nights I envisage

Layout

The full list is as follows:

TV: Samsung LE32B450C4
AV Receiver: Onkyo TX-SR507
Sources: Samsung BD-P1600, Sky+HD, Xbox 360 Elite, Custom built Media PC
Speakers: Tannoy SFX5.1

I have just seen the controller of BBC1 officially announce the end of Neighbours on the BBC! This is a sad day. Not only am I fan of the Aussie soap, but the mechanism of the loss is a problem that is spreading throughout television and the media in general. Greedy TV executives. Basically, the company that sells Neighbours to the BBC have asked for a 300% increase in the amount that BBC1 pays for each episode, a sum that is grossly out of proportion with the market rates. This has led to the BBC deciding not to renew its contract to show the soap. The current contract ends in April 2008. What annoys me is how often we are hearing this story these days. The recent Virgin Media versus BSkyB battle over Sky One is another example of ridiculous demands by broadcasters for their programmes to be shown on other systems. This is not good for viewers.

I realise we live in a competitive world where the common theme is globalisation and capitalism but we must draw the line. We are losing out to fat cats.