Quote:You are absolutely right to say I was being a bit harsh, and I apologise to all those who can't make it to the TT this year - I forget sometimes how privileged I am to live here.
The situation is that Manx Radio is funded to the tune of £1 million a year by taxpayers in the Isle of Man, and makes the rest of its income from advertising sales. Advertising equates to less than 50 per cent of the station budget.
While I appreciate the offer of listening to your local stations for free, I'd point out fully commercial stations are entirely self-funding so I wouldn't be relying on compulsory part-funding by taxpayers while local BBC radio stations are funded by the licence fee, which we have to pay in the Isle of Man despite not benefitting from the same level of service as the UK.
When you say 'lining the pockets of The Dukes' what do you mean? The maximum cost of TT Live is £20. Part of that must, surely, go to Manx Radio, which is providing the commentary, some to Greenlight TV, which is providing the race highlight videos during race week, and then there is the cost the increased bandwidth, staffing overtime, new webcams etc etc etc.
How much money do you think The Dukes are taking home from each subscription after costs have been met? And why do you begrudge Duke a small profit? It's not like they are alone in making a bit of money out of the TT, amd I've yet to see them inflate thier prices just for the TT as many other traders do. A DVD is going to cost punters the same in TT week as it does the rest of the year, and I don't think anyone could call £20 for a fortnight-long service excessive.
And how can you possibly say BBC's coverage of the NW200 was free? It was 'free' to those outside the licence fee paying area or those who simply don't pay their licence fee, but it was paid for by all licence payers, including those who have no interest in road racing.

Firstly thanks for acknowledging that we're not all TT dodgers but actually just people who would rather be there than here at work and my rantings are based upon I'd rather be there than here
I think to be fair, the residents of The Isle of Man DO get the same level of service from the BBC than I do here in Nottingham, you as I do, get BBC1 BBC2 TV, Radio 1 Radio 2 Radio 3 Radio 4 etc, the only thing that you don't get on the Isle of man is BBC Radio IOM, I get BBC Radio Nottingham, but this station is not to be listened to until you are at least 75 years old!!

Also in parts of the IOM you can get BBCNI TV and don't have to rely on watching the NW200 ( should you wish to) via the internet or Virgin TV (a service which costs me £38 a month for broadband and TV for BBCNI which without I would not have been able to see the NW200).
The BBCNI broadcast was free, based upon the fact that I HAD to buy a licence anyway, I had no choice in that.
Dukes profits I'm sure won't be small, if they were to work for 'small profits' we'd have had a decent MGP vid last year.
My reasons for not wishing to, as I described it 'wanting to line their pockets' is simple.
A few years ago when the internet had become popular, an offer was made by a person associated to this site (whose name I will not mention in case the said person does not wish to be named in this thread) to run, for FREE (actually at this persons expense) and with the help of TT enthusiasts, like this site is now, host and run the OFFICIAL TT SITE, but surprisingly the 'job' was given to DUKE. Ok to a point, but as everyone who goes on these sites regularly will be able to vouch THE OFFICIAL SITE was not updated from one year to the next and was indeed for 2 years not even updated during TT until the end of the event? (who remembers that??) Even now apart from during the event there is little updating or info appearing on THE OFFICIAL SITE, whereas THIS site is updated at least twice a week out of season and as often as 2 or 3 times a day during the TT and MGP.
A small and maybe petty gripe it maybe, but as far as I'm concerned it was and still is a ploy to stitch up the whole media rights of the TT.
Enjoy it afterall its FREE for YOU unless you want to park at Nobles Park in anything other than an Audi
Cheers
Russ