The UK is going through a TV crisis at present, much to the satisfaction of whistle-blowers like myself. A lot of fixing and faking has been brought to the attention of the press, but it's interesting because the public get all outraged without knowing the complete picture. It's as simple as this: without the shortcuts, most of their favourite shows simply wouldn't get made. Insurance, health and safety, time and cost constraints, unpredictable members of the public, etc mean that the most entertaining things are also the ones impossible to do for real. It's somewhat of a house of cards, if people demand no fakery, they are going to find that certain shows (particularly science and property shows) simply won't get made any more. It's also problematic because some shows (BBC) are funded by TV license funds, paid for directly by the public. However, the BBC is now funding three channels with the same budget it previously had for one. It's not difficult to see how cost becomes far more important than integrity, particularly because of the way shows are made now. Small production companies make the show, not the channel itself. And small production companies often only care about profit, by any means necessary.
Our delay was something like a quarter of a second, or whatever it takes the signal to travel to the geostationary satellite and back to earth at the speed of light.
