BBC

"The golden age of radio had been the 1940s, when programmes like ITMA and Family Favourites attracted enormous audiences. But it was already becoming apparent that television was the medium of the future. In 1946 there were only fifteen thousand television licence-holders in Britain, most of them in London. A decade later there were five million, and 98 per cent of the population was in reach of a television signal.'° The BBC’s huge investment in television was reinforced by its coverage of major events, notably Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in June 1953. In much the same way as Rupert Murdoch would use sport to attract viewers to his Sky satellite channels forty years later, the BBC was using the big events of the 1950s to cultivate public interest in television. It succeeded to such an extent that demand for television receivers far exceeded supply."

"The idea of a margin of safety, a Graham precept, will never be obsolete. —CHARLIE MUNGER, WESCO ANNUAL MEETING, 2003 No matter how wonderful [a business] is, it’s not worth an infinite price. We have to have a price that makes sense and gives a margin of safety considering the normal vicissitudes of life. —CHARLIE MUNGER, BBC"

"⁠The one thing all Sky’s deals had in common were that they were tough to negotiate. That was partly because the network was not yet on air, partly because its people were new, and also because TV rights are notoriously brutally expensive. Heatley initially could not persuade CNN to do an exclusive deal. The US network accepted both offers—Sky got CNN news for the bulk of its 24-hour news channel, supplemented by the BBC, but TVNZ got the news feeds and access to CNN reporters it was after.⁠"