I think you are right about the programming, and the reasons. The government want to ensure that when they pull the plug on analogue broadcasting, nobody will give a damn, but they don't intend to help poor people who can't afford to buy an expensive new digital set, so it has to be so unpalatable that even NO TV will be an improvement.

Mr. Murdoch, of course, is only too willing to have a ready made monopoly to which the Monopolies and Mergers Commission cannot object, so he has helped them by grabbing all the decent stuff.

HE doesn't have to worry about the viewers, where else can they go?

Don T.