The Freeview Fiasco and other topics

My goodness! There was I thinking that in being a frog, my life was fraught with dangers of all kinds, but my life is nothing when compared to that of you humans. Never a week passes in this day and age, without that something has kicked you humans where it hurts the most. Bob has now told me about something you lot in Britain call, Freeview. Apparently, following a number of years where the BBC TV channels have been telling you that in order to watch television at following the switch to digital, you all have to go out and buy yourselves a Set-top Box. Ribbit!!!

Fair enough, you may think, and many of you did more than just think about it. You eagerly went out and purchased one of these devices, because after all, it was only twenty pounds and without one, you would simply be left with a television that you couldn’t receive programmes on, unless of course, you have Sky or Cable TV. Lovely J

Over the years, the good old BBC spent lots of licence fee money on a fancy advert to constantly remind you that without one of these boxes, your TV would go the way of the Dodo. That‘s all very well and good, but it seems that some of you have conveniently discovered that your set-top box doesn’t work, and here I’m referring to those among you who live in the area that receives digital broadcasts. Apparently, Freeview, the company in charge of the change over, has decided in their wisdom that they had to make some changes to their system by upgrading the signal. This means that your set-top boxes will no longer do the job for which it was intended. Croak!!!

Now, I don’t know about you, but according to your consumer laws, any product that is made, and then sold to consumers, must be fit for the purpose that it was intended. Buying a product that then doesn’t work, regardless of the excuse given, the liability then falls on the retailer to refund the consumer. Remember, the BBC told you to go out and buy one of these products, therefore it was beholding upon them to make sure that the Freeview systems that were put on sale, actually operated in conjunction with the Freeview signal. Letting purchasers discover later on that the system would be upgraded after they had already purchased their set-top box, is no excuse in their defence for any changes subsequently made. Freeview, BBC… Get your act together. Ribbit!!!

Well now, don’t say that I didn’t tell you about this financial fiasco you lot are going through at the moment. Croak!!! How many Banks and Financial institutions have to go belly up before you humans start asking questions? You know, all this money that these people have been losing is still around somewhere, probably in the pockets of all those who made big fat profits from the mortgages they sold you. Now you learn that other banks, etc may go to the wall. I wonder, how long have the executives and board members of these companies known about what was going to happen, before it did, that is? Did they think of what it would cost in jobs and other people’s money? Did they think that someone would bail them out? Croak!!!

If a simple frog like me can see what was going to happen, and remember, I did speak to you lot about this a long time ago, then why couldn’t these people see it and act accordingly? A newspaper article suggested that the CEO of Lehman Bros, Richard Fuld, received a performance-related bonus last March, bringing his pay to a staggering $22.1m. What performance? I’ll leave you to judge what you think is happening here, along with all the other Banks and Financial institutions that have, and are going to fall along the wayside. Croak!!!

I‘m going back to my pond, it‘s safer there… I’ll see you all again next week… Bye for now,

Froggy