Sports-heavy broadcast day for BBC One receives complaints; BBC responds

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

An image from the Six Nations tournament, which was covered on the BBC for 8 hours on Saturday

The BBC has responded to complaints that the BBC One schedule for February 23 was too sports dominated.

In a statement released by the British national broadcaster, they said they “are sorry that some viewers felt the BBC One schedule on 23 February contained too much sport.”

The statement came after the BBC received 124 complaints about the level of sports coverage on last Saturday. The schedule, which the British newspaper The Guardian defines as “sports dominated,” covered sport for eleven and a half hours of Saturday afternoon.

The statement added that “we [the BBC] realise that not everyone enjoys watching sport but there is undeniably a large section of our audience who do.” The statement also said that the BBC should provide content which will be enjoyed by the “large section” of society who enjoy watching sport.

The BBC’s sports coverage included eight hours of coverage of the Six Nations rugby tournament, which the BBC has secured the Six Nations coverage up to 2013, in a deal which cost the BBC 160 million GBP.

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Sources

John Plunkett. "BBC says sorry for sports marathon" — Guardian Unlimited, February 27, 2008
"BBC responds to rugby complaints" — BBC News Online, February 27, 2008
"BBC One schedule on 23 February contained too much sport" — BBC Complaints, February 27, 2008

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