BBC Sport - What is the point ?
WhoAteMeDinner
Posts: 4,612 Forum Member
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In the last few weeks, BBC Sport has lost the rights to Football League highlights and the Open Golf. From 2022, Discovery / Eurosport are the primary rights holder of the Olympic Summer games. BBC may get some but certainly not all broadcast rights sub-contracted by Discovery.
All they have left are very short duration annual sports events; Six Nations (half of games shared with ITV) and Wimbledon fortnight (which BT Sport are sniffing around).
Throw in the occasional athletics coverage and a rugby league game here and there and that is pretty much it.
The question is if the BBC is "cash flat" for the next decade, which to me sounds like a 20% real terms cut in income, should BBC Sport be closed, and all sports coverage outsourced to independent production, as Channel 4 has always done ?
The saving would have to be more than a hundred million pounds, given the droves of Sports hacks they have all over radio and TV platforms, talking about stuff they can't show any footage of, it is quite pathetic now. The regular news readers could simply give the sports results as happens on Radio 4 now.
All they have left are very short duration annual sports events; Six Nations (half of games shared with ITV) and Wimbledon fortnight (which BT Sport are sniffing around).
Throw in the occasional athletics coverage and a rugby league game here and there and that is pretty much it.
The question is if the BBC is "cash flat" for the next decade, which to me sounds like a 20% real terms cut in income, should BBC Sport be closed, and all sports coverage outsourced to independent production, as Channel 4 has always done ?
The saving would have to be more than a hundred million pounds, given the droves of Sports hacks they have all over radio and TV platforms, talking about stuff they can't show any footage of, it is quite pathetic now. The regular news readers could simply give the sports results as happens on Radio 4 now.
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Comments
So
a) That saving is a guess
b) The BBC should not even report or discuss sports news now?
To read some comments here you would get the impression that the only good broadcasters originate in London!
However, addressing the second point; of course the Sportcentre is overstaffed - the BBC is a publicly owned organisation, and as such has no idea of how to run a business leanly. The same can be said for the ridiculously overstaffed front of camera weather presenting team, which could be halved in size - but that's for another thread.
A bit racist don't you think?
Racist ?
Looks like the usual British obsession for a whinge.
In response to the subject of the thread, snooker and darts I believe are already produced by independent production companies.
Haven't the BBC just signed new contracts with the rugby league and rugby union ?
The Wimbledon contract runs to 2017 and looks like being renewed
Then we have the next Euros and World Cup
Commonwealth Games
Yes the cupboard is bare.....
And btw, I have no Sky or BT subscriptions, so my beef with the BBC is purely an attempt to save them money, and the events that are on every two or four years hardly need a full-time sports department to cover them.
If the BBC knows what it's going to show live they should make more of an effort to tell people what's on.
Dunno how...maybe an annoying ticker in the middle of EE explaining "in 1 minute you can watch the European naked mud wrestling championships on the red button"?
Genuine sports *hidden* recently =
Triathlon
Rowing
Eurohockey
Swimming/diving
Do you have a UK TV Licence though?
Outside Premier football, sport is a cheap way of filling hours of the day, and I'm surprised there's not more of it.
If we are forced to buy the licence then the BBC must provide sport for those of us not bothered with it's normal cooking/baking/antique dealing (etc etc) output >:(
There's a fair amount of equestrian coverage on the Red Button too.
Why do you focus on what you don't like as if that's all that is available?
Last weekend there was an abundance of sport on the BBC.... World Championship Athletics, Rugby League, Women's Football, Premier League Highlights, European Hockey and that's pretty much normal for most weekends.
So they should cover (i.e. report on) no other events then?
As a rugby league fan too I am delighted the BBC have kept the Challenge Cup for 4 more seasons too
Cricket, Hockey, Football, Rugby, Formula 1
Hahaha.... What??