The BBC Blanks Out

A few days ago, Blighty's Blog reported on a new service through which you could receive BBC1 and BBC2 television from the UK - live. If you missed the post, here is a link to it:

http://blog.blightys.com/2009/02/watch-live-uk-tv-free.html

In the post I noted that I couldn't see how the service could possibly be legal and that you should enjoy it while it lasts. Well, it didn't last very long at all. Late last week I clicked on the link and received an error message that said something to the effect of: "connection refused, go away, you don't belong here". I brought up the website again the next day and the links for the BBC had been removed.

Blighty's Blog is read in a surpringly large number of countries around the world. Among the countries from which we frequently get readers is ... the United Queendom - home of "the Beeb". Is it possible that somebody in "Bertie's British Cupboard" (that's a joke, read the story about the two BBCs here) read Blighty's Blog and pulled the switch?

Well, I am not going to risk that happening again. I routinely watch live UK Premiership soccer games on the Setanta sports channel. But I do it for free through the Internet. If you would like to know how you will have to ask (send a comment using the link below and I will email you privately). If you are British and your name is Bertie and you live in a Cupboard, I am sorry but I am not going to divulge my secret to you. Whoops, sorry, it is so difficult to tell the difference between a giant broadcasting corporation called BBC and a small British imports store in Canada called BBC (are you still reading Blighty's Blog, Auntie Beeb?)

21 Reasons To Get Your News From the UK

The United Kingdom has one of the largest - if not the largest - number of national dailies of any country in the world. I counted 21 paid circulation daily newspapers in England, Scotland and Wales.

Every shade of political opinion is represented from the traditionally surly right-wing editorials of the Times and the populist Daily Mail to the socialist Morning Star.

The most famous, and longest established, of them all is "The Times". It's name was adopted by other newspapers around the world (e.g. The New York Times) and so outside of Britain it is referred to as the "Times of London".

The Times was first published in 1785 and for many years it was famous for never carrying news on its front page. For over 200 years it was published as a broadsheet before switching to a compact format in 2004.

The Times newspaper is the originator of the ubiquitous typeface known as "Times New Roman", devised for reliable printing on mass production machinery.

Nowadays, newspapers all carry online editions as well as the printed versions. The modern age of the Internet has made yesterday's printed news all but redundant.

Blighty's website has a page (www.blightys.com/UKNews.html) in which a fair sampling of Britain's online news sources is presented as convenient clickable links. There is also a Google Widget providing live updates from the BBC and a pocket history of the "Beeb".