Funny really. The only time television has ever really cared about voting was when it offered an opportunity to drain money from audiences.

When it comes to public policy, broadcasting follows the long British tradition of deferring decisions to appointed boards of scrupulously selected, upstanding gentlefolk. God forbid those board members be politicised, or lured into some broader political process.

It is hardly the fault of Ofcom that when it comes to options for dishing out public money the preferred solutions of boss Ed Richards are expressed like this:

“Ofcom’s content board could do it, although I would not necessarily recommend that. The BBC Trust could become a broader funding agency, or you could set up something new called the Public Service Trust or Agency,” he said.

Political, democratic or voting based solutions are not on the table to decide on subsidy allocations aimed at producing television to encourage and support what exactly?

Er, precisely the kind of civic activity and engagement that is deemed so inappropriate to its disbursement.

Although as economist Mark Armstrong says:

there is some irony in highlighting as a mechanism for promoting social cohesion a medium that is also much criticised for contributing to greater isolation and reducing participation in community activities.

Yes, irony, ironic…all those words.