Funferal

Eurosport … and political posters

The campaign to have ntl reinstate Eurosport seems to be continuing apace. It’s an interesting case – although televised sport can often be viewed as a passive occupation, the niche nature of many of the sports featured on the channel means that Eurosport can often be the only way for practitioners to view their own sport.
Rowing, for example, is rarely (other than the Boat Race and possibly Henley) covered on other stations. So this is not only a case of a company leveraging its dominant position in a market (ntl has exclusivity of cable provision in several markets in Ireland), but also disadvantaging active sportspeople.
On a totally different note, Fermoy has decided to ban posters in the town for the general election. While I recognise the litter aspect, this is yet another case of moving the political process away from public fora and into the private.
I continue to regret the decision to ban campaigning outside polling stations (in the early 1990s). While some found the canvassing extreme, it did give an excitement to to the day, and mark polling stations as the location of an event.