The BBC and Sport in the UK

A

assuan

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 October 2010
Messages
278
Location
Berkshire
Visit site
First off just wanted to express how disappointed I was with the Badminton coverage this weekend by the BBC, what with the digital services that are now available, I though it would have been better covered.

Also, their general reporting on the event. news.bbc.co.uk has hardly anything obvious, for one of the largest events in the UK, I would have though they would have at least mentioned it.

I think people are proud of the equestrian Team GB, following on from the Olympics; a lot more people would have watched all day on the tv or online if given the option!!

Very disappointing...

Also, very disappointed to see that a man who pushes some balls around a table with his little stick gets £175k for winning......what does the winner of Badminton get, £65k (or thereabouts).....
It's just not right -- does he have to have someone out to inject his cue to ensure it doesn't get woodwarm, does he have to have someone come out every few weeks to replace the little rubber stopper on the end, is it's diet of chalk really that expensive!!!!
Don't get me started on PL Footballers.......
Totally disproportionate grrrr

Rant over. :):D:D:D:D
 
My thoughts exactly! Why isn't the original extreme sport more publicised?

There's none stop action, especially during the XC, whereas Snooker...YAWN!
 
Agreed one hundred times over. It's ridiculous, considering the number of people who invest in horses in this country (and would therefore probably have an interest in watching). With talks of a crowd of 150,000 on XC day, how many more were stuck at home, wishing that they could be there?
What's more, I swear there used to be coverage of Badminton (and Burghley and Hickstead, for that matter) for at least 2 of the days that they were running. Now we have a measly 2 hours. Cuts, cuts, cuts. They need to be made in the right places (I mean, do we really need Come Dine With Me and other equivalents? Really?)
 
Well, there was 5 hours plus shown on the red button on Saturday so that's quite good coverage surely?

Sadly it is still seen as an elitist sport and not as many people have access to horse riding as they do snooker, football etc etc. It is sad there's not as much coverage as maybe there could/should be but then I am sure there are plenty of people who are passionate about other sports that get even less coverage who get even madder!
 
All goes on ratings and viewer numbers.

If I were a broadcaster I wouldn't invest an awful lot on a pretty low viewer sport.

Racing is already highly invested in and they have to make calls on seasonal sports such as cricket, snooker and err... horseriding. Not exactly a "popular" sport when compared to the others. Like it or not.
 
I watched the cross country all afternoon on Sunday, it was on for hours, don't know how much more coverage they could have managed?
 
I thought the coverage was outstanding. Over 7 hours of Badminton viewing to be had over Saturday and Sunday. Every news bulliten that contained sports news I heard on Saturday and Sunday contained a mention of the event, and the winner later on when the competition had concluded.

Not sure how you can improve on that to be honest.
 
tallyho! said:
If I were a broadcaster I wouldn't invest an awful lot on a pretty low viewer sport.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree with this a little, Badminton is the largest attended pay to attend sporting even in the UK (c.250,000 people go on xc day) and the second largest in the world.

That said I thought 5 hours on Saturday (which I was glued to much to the anoiance of my OH!) was pretty good - haven't watched Sundays round up yet but recorded so will do when he's out.
I'm not sure I'd have sat and watched 5 hours of dressage but then again not sure it would have cost a huge amount to record the SJ and play that in full on red button too.

The issue is BBC's view of horses as eletist because all of us a rich toffs don't you know!!
 
I thought the red button xc coverage was good. Was a little disappointed not to see more sj, I think it would have been nice for it to have been offered on the red button while the highlights programme was on. I can't imagine the cost of this would be too much?

I was able to catch up on some dressage online but the lack of coverage was irrelevant for me as I was at work.
 
Polos Mum said:
I have to disagree with this a little, Badminton is the largest attended pay to attend sporting even in the UK (c.250,000 people go on xc day) and the second largest in the world.

That said I thought 5 hours on Saturday (which I was glued to much to the anoiance of my OH!) was pretty good - haven't watched Sundays round up yet but recorded so will do when he's out.
I'm not sure I'd have sat and watched 5 hours of dressage but then again not sure it would have cost a huge amount to record the SJ and play that in full on red button too.

The issue is BBC's view of horses as eletist because all of us a rich toffs don't you know!!
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly - a large ATTENDED sport. Who exactly is at home watching? It's not like the GN.

I don't think the BBC is elitist one bit.
 
I was sat home watching the whole thing and given the number of threads on here asking when and where it was on I don't think I was the only one. Plenty of people can't travel to watch in person or can't watch on the day because of other commitments.

No idea on actual viewing figures but I'd bet they were pretty high for red button/ olympic XC day etc.
According to the last BETA survey in 2005/06 there were 2 million people in the UK riding at least once a month, and NED had c.1.4m horse passports registered at that time. So if only 250,000 attend then that still leaves quite a lot sat home who'd like to watch.
 
I thought the coverage was good. Having the full XC on the red button was excellent and it was great having the riders do stints on the commentary, I really enjoyed it tbh. It would have been nice to see more of the SJ on Monday but there again the popular part of the competition for the majority is the XC, and the BBC need to play to the wider audiences.

I think the limited mentions on sports bulletins etc. is a reflection of interest of the general public and perhaps more a matter for the equestrian sports bodies such as BE to pick up.

If the level of interest of the people I work with is typical, I'm afraid it will be a long time before we see eventing news leading the headlines!
 
I think the other factor is the cost to film.

Snooker will have required a few fixed cameras - the budget outlay to do the coverage will be minute compared with a large outdoor event covering several miles of ground.

Personally I thought they did a really good job - the eventing dressage using the same test will be boring to anyone not really interested.
 
ladyt25 said:
Well, there was 5 hours plus shown on the red button on Saturday so that's quite good coverage surely?

Sadly it is still seen as an elitist sport and not as many people have access to horse riding as they do snooker, football etc etc. It is sad there's not as much coverage as maybe there could/should be but then I am sure there are plenty of people who are passionate about other sports that get even less coverage who get even madder!
Click to expand...

This.

Horses by the very nature of the costs involved will always be a minority sport whether we agree with that or not and I also think 5-6 hrs of Red Button coverage was an awful lot.

Even as a horse lover I can't sit for hours watching televised events, its too samey and I find the commentary too bland. If I was that interested in watching it all I'd have bought a ticket.
 
I thought the XC coverage was excellent, admittedly it was on the red button but I don't think you can realistically expect 5 hours of XC on BBC 1 or 2. I don't think you can expect the dressage to be televised, it wouldn't get a big audience and you'd have to have commentators there all day. (I assume all the tests are filmed because they did show highlights on the Sunday programme and must have to allow for unexpected leaders).

That said I do think the showjumping coverage was poor. Fair enough not showing the morning session but they could have shown the entire top 20 on red button and then had a highlights of all phases programme on BBC2 in the evening
 
I don't think it would have been that difficult to show all the showjumping on the red button? I was disappointed not to be able to see at least the top 20. As it ended up, we didn't see anything of the rounds of the riders who finished from 7-10. The cross country coverage was excellent though.
 
I see that next year the event reverts to the old format of Thursday to Sunday which I assume is due in part or main to the BBC coverage? From a personal point of view, I've rather come to like the Friday to Bank Holiday set up as selfishly it meant I only had to book one day's annual leave to attend..ah well have to save up an extra day next year.
 
Personally, apart from SJ and more so the XC, watching horses on telly is so damned boring. I would actually rather watch paint dry than watch dressage. I don't know why as dressage is my horsey sport of choice. I just can't stand to watch it on telly... Olympics was different ;)

The only reason racing is covered so much is because it's a betting sport.

I would however watch polo, polocrosse, horseball if it were aired... ever! That's more exciting than SJ, XC & DR put together, at least you can support a team.
 
Penumbra said:
I don't think it would have been that difficult to show all the showjumping on the red button? I was disappointed not to be able to see at least the top 20. As it ended up, we didn't see anything of the rounds of the riders who finished from 7-10. The cross country coverage was excellent though.
Click to expand...

Not sure. Presumably they had to get all the cameras ready before it started anyway. I don't know if different TV companies were sharing pictures, there a vids of some of the earlier rounds on Eventing Nation. Against which if they had broadcast it they'd have needed commentators in place earlier, presumably an interviewer, possibly techies on site earlier and all of that would have cost money.
 
I don't understand how snooker has better viewing figures than eventing - I mean, how interesting can it be to watch a few balls knocking around a table? :confused:

Can't blame the BBC for following viewing figures, but do find the viewing figures bizarre!
 
I do agree tallyho, I can't watch a lot of dressage even though I fully appreciate the work involved, iit's not the most exciting spectator sport. I think part of the reason it's reverting to the normal days next year is as they're moving it later in the year aren't they to try and avoid the bad weather?
 
JFTD said:
I don't understand how snooker has better viewing figures than eventing - I mean, how interesting can it be to watch a few balls knocking around a table? :confused:

Can't blame the BBC for following viewing figures, but do find the viewing figures bizarre!
Click to expand...

Snooker is covered because the majority of the UK population live in pubs the majority of the time.
 
ladyt25 said:
I do agree tallyho, I can't watch a lot of dressage even though I fully appreciate the work involved, iit's not the most exciting spectator sport. I think part of the reason it's reverting to the normal days next year is as they're moving it later in the year aren't they to try and avoid the bad weather?
Click to expand...

You and I could probably appreciate the work involved... but just imagine someone who doesn't know the first thing about it... it just looks like someone dressed like they are off out to a posh dinner, bouncing up and down on a horse going sideways and around in circles. Snnoorrrrresville :D

In their shoes I could appreciate some lanky man riding a horse that's belting it over two pick-ups and a through a holey-hedge.
 
tallyho! said:
Are they? What a bout racing, football, cricket, rugby, Glasto? :D:D:D:D
Click to expand...

They don't televise the drinking though - they focus on the sport... Besides, how many folks were getting carried away with the pimms at the weekend? :D
 
JFTD said:
They don't televise the drinking though - they focus on the sport...
Click to expand...

To actually televise a piss-up in action would be a smidge more boring than dressage... however, I love it when when they televise snippets of the effects of alcohol... always makes more interesting viewing if you ask me.

And anyway, it is actually so interesting that there are dedicated TV programmes, too many to count, that cover drinking and the effects of. Always good for a laugh...
 
I personally thought the XC coverage on the red button was very good. It was on for hours, the commentators were great and I'm glad it wasn't on a normal channel getting messages like "news to follow" etc interrupting the viewing and making you feel guilty that your watching something.
They could have showed more of the SJ on the Monday as BBC2 only showed half an hour of it before the snooker the other hour was highlights of the XC. Would have been nice to see the prize giving and a bit of a follow up at the end but hey ho.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top