Following the Fox down its hole

As is known commonly, progress for some is regression for others. Those in charge of BBC3 (digital channel of the year, probably awarded solely on the programme they did chronicling the British Army in Afghanistan) have decided to follow this line of thinking, having straplines of the next show, five minutes before time on the previous show. On Points of View, despite a flurry of complaints, the head of BBC3 said that “Straplines are here to stay.” So much for listening to other people.
Part of the problem is that they hover on the screen for so long at completely arbitrary parts of the narrative of the programme they invade. On American Dad last night, an important part of information was obscured by the strapline advertising Family Guy, until the very last moment. This is despite Family Guy savaging Fox TV in one episode for the latter’s own straplines a couple of years ago. Does the head of BBC3 even watch his own imports? Given the regularity of repeats and thus the airtime given to this ‘innovation’, is this why the funding to bring over new Family Guy in jeopardy? Closing down the avenues of dissent is a sure sign of a narrowing mind.