With a signal comes the ads

BY ACCIDENT, I discovered I could pull in a signal from RTE if I winched the TV upstairs to the easternmost corner of the house. In Ballyclerihan, anyone could hear me shriek as my spindly internal antenna brought RTE into view. The first thing I saw was an advertisement for the "Late Late SHow" which is produced by the state-sponsored national broadcaster. I pay around $175 annually in a licence fee (why not call it a tax?) to watch my TV even if I don't watch RTE. So it interested me to discover the 2005-06 edition of "Late Late" is sponsored by Renault, meanining hundreds of minutes of advertising embedded in a late-night show that's paid already by licence fees.

I wish there was a decoder that came with your licence fee. That way I could turn out state-subsidised signals and be satisfied with free-to-air shows from the BBC and beyond.