Sorry for the Offtopic, to correct Gerry, the "Government Subsidies" to the BBC aren't really. As a result of historical developments, the BBC is funded by a TV licence, which all owners of TVs in the UK must buy, whether they watch the BBC or not. Currently it costs about 110 pounds, or $160 US a year for a licence, and about a third of that for those who own a black and white TV. There has been some debate over how the BBC should be funded in the future. If TV licences were abolished, then the BBC would have to get its funding through advertising. At the moment, there are no commercials on BBC channels in the UK. ITV, about three or four years ago, went from a standard 3 x 4 minute commercial slots per hour to 4 per hour, or a bunch of commercials every 15 minutes. I think most of the networks in the States have commercials every 10 minutes or so. Personally, I like the way the BBC works, as worldwide successes like Airport are not dependent upon big audiences for ratings, therefore the breadth of programming is wider. The BBC still covers a few hours of highlights from the Farnborough Airshow every couple of years. The downside is that big ticket events, like major sports events, have been lost to higher bidders over the years, such as coverage of Formula One motor racing (to ITV), and English Premiership soccer (to Rupert Murdoch's Sky TV). Which means more 'cheap' TV like Airport! Jim > Isn't the name of the BBC program AirPORT? > The BBC and ITV are two competing British TV Networks. BBC enjoys big government subsidies. I don't know if ITV gets any part of the government collected license fee. > > 'AIRLINE' to Debut on A&E, 1st Quarter 2004 > > AIRLINE is based on the hit U.K. show of the same name, which has > > consistently pulled in strong ratings during its six-year run on Britain's ITV > > Network.