Originally Posted by Score:
“It is the lazy option but I think it would also benefit the soaps themselves as the doubles aren't exactly popular with fans anyway. Maybe they don't say that in the Autumn but it's hardly going to do X Factor and Downton any harm to have a soap lead-in. Although it would be interesting to see what BBC1 would do with Strictly results if ITV had the soaps in the 7pm hour..”
I've probably banged on about moving the soaps to Sunday umpteen times but I genuinely think it would be better for ITV, better for the soaps and better for the viewers. I always say this but I think it's a waste having double bills and hour long episodes every week because it means when you have a genuinely big story and you want to make a splash with the scheduling, you can't do it. As opposed to 'stEnders when they only do hour long or double bills very occasionally, and it feels like a big thing. As you say, I don't think viewers like them.
If you were to move the soaps to Sundays, the obvious ones to move are the Thursday 8pm Emmerdale and the Friday 8.30 Corrie. The former I don't think should be made anyway because five is enough, but if you have to have it, putting it on Sunday would be a logical bit of scheduling, Sunday to Friday at seven just looks a million times better than Monday to Friday at seven plus Thursday at eight. The less words you can use to describe the schedule, the better. It's never really worked, BBC1 happily schedule stuff around and Birds of a Feather is illustrating it is of minimal value as a lead-in. The Friday 8.30 Corrie is similarly fairly pointless as a lead-in given P**rs M*rg*n was fifth out of five coming out of it the other month (although that programme is clearly bloody awful).
The argument is, I suppose, if you lose those soaps Thursday will become as barren as Tuesday and Friday will give up at 8pm. But that just illustrates ITV's weak programming line-up, it could be considered a "lazy" option to move the soaps to Sunday to prop up Sunday but it seems equally lazy to rely on them to keep weeknights afloat. It's not like Sundays are hotbeds of innovation and success at the moment. The other argument is that you want nights without soap but at least an hour on a Sunday - when programmes start earlier anyway - seems to me more easily avoidable than ninety minutes on a weeknight when you're not really sitting down to watch telly until seven and after all the soaps there's an hour of something else then it's bedtime. Might have been OK when the news was at eleven, not now ITV more or less pack up at ten.
There is the Strictly argument but at least for ITV it makes life a bit tougher for the Beeb. I think it also works for creativity because you're not then stuck with having to launch every new light entertainment format on a Sunday, a la Get Your Act Together, where it withers and dies in the face of a consistent BBC1 line-up, you could do it on a Thursday or Friday slot where it's a bit less exposed.
Originally Posted by jda135:
“ Also, if the cricket really is to be shown at 10pm as the Ofcom notice says, that is a huge risk, but fair play to ITV as the News at Ten has been rating awfully over the past 12 months.”
Of course, that's just a badly written Guardian article, the cricket will be at 10pm when it's on ITV4, and presumably at 10.30 when it's on ITV1, and most of the England matches are at the weekend anyway.
Originally Posted by Andy23:
“Regarding Waterloo Road, I've watched it since the start and thought I might as well watch it to the end, but it isn't acceptable for me to watch TV until 11:45 on a working day, and next week's is basically not airing on BBC1 at all, so I've missed the last two. Therefore I'm not surprised it's fallen even further than it was getting last series. It must be a very expensive drama per BBC1 viewer now.”
This reminds me a bit of when they were still showing the omnibus of Night and Day on ITV for a year after they dumped it at teatime, when it would sometimes end up going out at 1am, which must surely make it the most expensive programme ever shown after midnight. Must have been amazing to work on it, knowing nobody was watching at all.
Originally Posted by
Pizzatheaction:
“Last night on BBC Wales was great:
BBC One Wales:
12.15-12.45 Film 2015
BBC Two Wales:
12.20-12.50 Film 2015
”
And those Film 2015 slots on network BBC1 so far - Wednesday 11.05, Tuesday 11.05, Tuesday 11.15, Wednesday 11.15. I do not know why BBC1 are scheduling this series so badly. I know it's always been famously scheduled quite badly, right back to the Barry Norman years, but at least they tried to keep it on the same day for a whole series. Clearly BBC1 have decided Film 2015 goes on Wednesday, which is fair enough, but if you're showing football on two of the first three Wednesdays of the run, surely you either a) hold the series back until after the football or b) don't show it on Wednesdays. They've done neither. There's also football on 11th February so presumably it'll be on Tuesday again that week. It absolutely baffles me why they didn't just put it on Tuesday full time.
Originally Posted by Pizzatheaction:
“It's fascinating. It would be embarrassing to lose the Premier League highlights, but would it be a good thing for the rest of BBC Sport?”
No, it would be a disaster, it would devastate BBC Sport and they'd have to make loads of people redundant. I know they did alright without it in 2001-04 but they had more football in those days because they had England and European matches as well, neither of which they'd have this time. It'd be the FA Cup and the tournaments, which would be a paltry affair, probably worse than ITV will have next season (as they at least have highlights of European football).
I would say the Premier League is one of the Beeb's biggest contracts, I think only the Olympics, World Cup, Euros and Wimbledon are bigger, and they need to keep hold of it. For my money, I would agree with what someone said here (Zac?) that they wouldn't have spent money on the FA Cup if there was a chance they'd then not have enough to afford the Premier League as well. I also think it's too big an outlay - not just in terms of the rights but in all the associated costs - for too little reward for ITV because it's virtually all out of primetime. I think they only want exclusive, primetime stuff. I'm also reminded of when everything thought they were going to go for the Six Nations in 2004 when England were world champions and the World Cup had done really well for them, and they didn't even bid.
This is my hope, anyway, because if the Beeb do lose it I'd be devastated. I got a bit of a start when the front page of the Sun today had "SNATCH OF THE DAY" on it because I thought they might have got wind of the result, but it turned out to be about Danny Murphy getting a massive tax bill. So that's alright.
