Sorry, can't sympathise with all the belly-aching going on. TV content is not "free", it cost somebody intellectual and monetary capital to generate the news/entertainment/documentary etc. Professional sportsmen are effectively entertainers, the field is their stage, and they get paid whatever the market deems they are worth. So, if you don't mind paying a cinema admission ticket, buying music from a store, or selling your photos online, why are you complaining about paying to watch sports? The Portuguese government spent many millions to upgrade their stadia and infrastructure, they don't have the right to recover the cost from viewers?
Next issue, who should pay for it.....
Now part of the funding for free to air TV comes from license fees. Do you recall what you paid last year for TV license......do you? A real pittance wasn't it? So how are they supposed to compete with SCV to bring in Euro 2004, unless they raise license fees across the board, even for the majority of Singaporeans (like Clive
) who don't watch soccer. Do you think that's fair?
Otherwise, they should perhaps take whatever money's in the pot and put it ALL on Euro 2004....children's programming, national education, documentaries and the arts be damned.
You forget TV5, 8 and CNA cater to a wide and diverse audience. What you deem to be a national priority in terms of "Goal 2004" is not necessarily shared by other stakeholders. So get off your high horse and do your sums. If you want sports, its all there, 3 full channels of it, together with CNN, BBC, National Geographic and Discovery Channel, all for a dollar a day. What a BARGAIN!