Mike Bongiorno in his own words stated, in a clip rebroadcasted just after his death, that when he was employed with Rai he received a paltry salary.

It was not enough to keep him at the level expected of him as a TV personality and consequently he and his similarly paid Rai colleagues had to do other part-time work.

For example he was much sought after to compere and comment at various religious feasts in Italy.

The reason undoubtedly Bongiorno defected to Silvio Berlusconi's Media set, in his own TV interview confessions, was the 600,000 old Italian liri Mr Berlusconi promised him in the first year of broadcasting!

A figure that stunned Mr Bongiorno enough, when he first heard it, to ask whether this was to cover a number of years? At this point Mr Berlusconi explained that through sponsors for his TV stations that figure would be paid to Mr Bongiorno for one year's work!

I'm not an expert on Bongiorno but I would have guessed that a clever quiz master would not leave prestigious but low-paying Rai for a private, relatively new entrant as Media Set if he was not sure that he was on a winning streak - despite what others even today think or imagine (Letters, September 22).

Here again is another example of the wholesomeness of competition in securing more choice for consumers, in this case TV fans, and higher salaries for good presenters and others in rival stations throughout the industry.

Naturally, saying this the regulator must not remain with hands tied when one or other of the players tries to steal a march on competitors by resorting to a debasing of the fare on offer, as not infrequently happens abroad and locally either truly due to lack of sufficient resources or more frequently through politically convenient lethargy!