If you've been away for the weekend you may have missed David Beckham's interview with the Dreem Team on Radio 1 yesterday morning. A relaxed Beckham talks about his recovery from injury; the beats he listens to in his car; getting tattooed to Tupac and the respective dancing abilities of the Manchester United squad. Worth a listen.

But in order to enjoy the interview in streaming audio you need to have Realplayer installed. Which reminded me of this article by David Hewson in yesterday's Sunday Times which advises you on how you can sidestep some of the extra 'options' on this software that can leave you bombarded with adverts and with 'surprise' charges showing up on your credit card bill. Hewson concludes -

'All this faffing goes hand in hand with accessing the BBC online, to whom most households in the UK already pay a tax, sorry, licence fee of £112 per year. Could someone at Broadcasting House please tell us why the BBC favours RealPlayer over the genuinely free Media Player from Microsoft?'

This sounds like a fair point to me. Most sites using streaming audio offer a range of formats, why can't the Beeb? Anyone with any thoughts?

NB. You will need to register (it's free) with The Sunday Times to read Hewson's article.