Yesterday I read an article in the newspaper that left me appalled: a would-be model in Sao Paulo decided to take off her clothes in the middle of the street to attract attention and the next day she was hired to work for a television company!

 

TV, with each passing day, becomes more rubbish. Damn, on Sundays then, I won't even talk about it! It got out of control.

 

Will we ever be able to have a TV with a good level again?... Maybe, but the whole problem is that these TVs depend on their advertisements to survive, and what really counts is not the level of programming, but rather the financial return they will have. The public remains in the background. TV relies on programs of this level (which treat people as futile and retarded), because companies do not want to invest their commercials in more, let's say, intelligent programs, as they think there would not be enough return and no one wants to risk throwing money away. This is a fact that occurs not only on TV, but practically throughout the entertainment industry. Furthermore, the owners of these TV networks are all right-wing (some far-right), and any program that makes people "think" is vetoed, because they want everyone like alienated cattle.

 

Did you know that the priority for TV companies is not the ratings? No... Even if program X has more audiences than program Y, that's not the most important thing. What really counts is the volume of investment by advertisers for each program. That's the math. Therefore, when TV shows a program of terrible quality, they don't care if that rubbish will harm people's psyche, the only thing that really matters is being able to keep their advertisers.

 

This doesn't just happen in Brazil, in many countries TV programming is also deplorable. But there are exceptions. One of the most successful is the BBC network, from England, which is a free-to-air broadcaster with really good programming, so much so that one of the best cable TV channels, People & Arts, has the BBC's fingers from behind. But why can it be different? Well, mainly because you don't need to depend on advertisements to survive! The BBC is owned by the government, and everyone who has a TV at home in the United Kingdom is required to pay a small annual fee to the BBC, making the broadcaster survive thanks to taxpayers' money. But this can only work in countries with organization and without theft in the government, so it would be a utopia to have a TV like this in Brazil in the current conjecture.

 

All the money collected is used to pay the company's operating costs and obviously to be able to invest in good quality educational programs. The broadcaster is divided into BBC1 and BBC2. There is also BBC World, which broadcasts all over the world, but its programming is very different from BBC1 and BBC2, which have all possible types of programs, like a normal broadcaster, while BBC World only shows news. The BBC is a broadcaster free from the obligation to chase investors and capital, thus being able to "breathe" and make room for better quality programs.