Won't the News and Regional News have to stay on BBC One, because DTT can't carry English regional variations on BBC Two?

Yeh, I think that's right.

It may move back to BBC1 in the unlikely event they are still going at 7.30pm, but probably not.

Well, the match is only just about to start, its perfectly feasible to it to head to near two hours. If it does go over 7pm and it doesn't switch back to BBC One, then I'll be surprised.

I would think if it did go past 7pm, it would go:

19:00 - Wimbledon
20:00 - EastEnders

You think they would move The One Show?

I'm not sure. Maybe for a Quarter Final or something, but its only a first round match.

I agree it's only a first round match, don't get carried away. I imagine weather permitting Murray will be 2nd or 3rd on Centre throughout the whole tournament

I can't see them moving an Andy Murray match to BBC One just yet, his matches last year were exceptions due to rain on previous matches and with the new roof, delays will be minimal.

BBC Two should be able to have some high rated matches and not have to switch to BBC One.

Yeah, guess so.

As Setanta have gone under, it means ITV automatically get all home England friendlies.

When do we know what games ESPN get from the Premier League? Right now all the fixture say Saturday 3pm.

They have two packages, totalling 46 games for the 2009/10 season:

Package C - Minimum 12 games at Mon 8pm (others can be Mon 8pm, Sat 5.15pm or Sun 1.30pm)
Package D - Minimum 18 games at Sat 5.15pm (others can be Sat 5.15pm or Sun 1.30pm)

For the 2010/11 to 2012/13 seasons, they only have Package D.

No they wouldn't sacrifice the all important one show They would have to call it the TWO show on BBC2 and quickly find some people with irritating voices to scream two over the titles.

Honestly it is only a first round match, there is no point not showing waking the dead as it is a two parter, Holby could be delayed I suppose and the match isn't exactly one sided so it may be interesting.

Only a first round match maybe, but it could be their only chance given how close it currently is.

Kendrick is not making it easy for GB's greatest hope, that's for sure.

The One Show on air.

Emergency averted.

Sorry, but I just lol'd at your services. If an emergency has just been averted, then I'm afraid your services would cause a national emergency (and mourning)!

Well, when Panorama moved to Mondays at 8.30, you couldn't move for articles in Media Guardian and Broadcast where Channel Four moaned that the Beeb had pinched their slot, failing to point out a) they'd only just moved Dispatches themselves, it used to be at 9pm on Thursdays, b) Tonight was in that slot beforehand, and c) they could have moved Dispatches to another slot but despite their moaning they don't have the balls to put it on anywhere other than opposite EastEnders and Corrie where they get no viewers anyway.

It's much like how they've scheduled The TV Show on Saturday afternoons, which they're only doing because they've been forced to do it, and now it rather conveniently seems to be going out only when there's a massive sporting event like The Grand National on the other side.

It is ridiculous scheduling, though. Say what you want about Panorama but at least it's there at 8.30 all year round, one of the many problems with Sundays was that they took it off for weeks on end, I think it was on thirty weeks of the year or something, and you can't have a news programme that's not on half the time. Although I wish they'd take it off on Bank Holidays.

I feel cheeky asking but you are the experts... Does anyone remember what the ratings/share were like for Robin Hood in the last series? I remember them being about 6 million? How much of the dip do you think is because it's on earlier in the evening, in summer, and typical of the time or does it indicate that a lot of people have given up on this series? I was about to start a rant on how destructive this series has been for the show and then I thought maybe that's not true and it's just the time of year it's on, etc. I dislike most of the choices they've made but I have to admit that 20% share doesn't seem that bad to me and could justify a 4th series.

I know it's popular, but stupid decision to keep The One Show running every week of the year IMO.

I'm not saying it should take long breaks, but things like Celebrity Masterchef slotted much better into the schedules stripped across the week at 7pm rather than the current pattern of being on an hour some days, half an hour on others.

And with matches likely to transfer to BBC1, taking it off air for Wimbledon fortnight would make a lot of sense just so they have the flexibility to move things if required.

It was indeed averaging a much more comfortable 5-6 million in previous series, as I remember.

Its decline is probably due to a combination of factors. The slot in the summer is definately not as strong as its old autumn slot where although it was up against X Factor, it did at least have the Strictly inheritance and the drama audience to itself.

I do think it was treated quite badly by the BBC this series though. In its first few weeks it was rattled forwards and backwards in the schedules. They couldn't decide whether they were happy clashing with Primeval or not, and then bumped it for the likes of the godawful Tonights the Night and Totally Saturday. It has settled into a regular slot now, but I still think its on too early and frankly, the damage has already been done to it.

Couldn't do much worse than who we've got atm.

The trouble is it got a very similar set of slots to Doctor Who this time last year, whose fans also were furious that it was put on much earlier than usual (some 6.15 and 6.20 starts, ISTR) and which also was allegedly being "sacrificed" to support other shows later in the evening schedule.

Now while DW arguably got more promotion than RH - Radio Times covers, trailers etc - there is no arguing the fact that its ratings were twice, sometimes thrice, what RH is getting.

Sadly, as Primeval and RH have both proven, there is only one family fantasy series which can pull in huge ratings in spring/early summer - and its initials are not RH.

Yes, IIRC the first 2 series were around about 6m. I don't think it helped that some of the earlier episodes were on against Primeval. That show has also been moved later in the year and like Robin Hood has seen declines. So the slot is clearly a big part of it.

By the same point, the share isn't that great and it's getting beaten by Animals Do The Funniest Things. Maybe it was only ever getting propped up by the Strictly Come Dancing lead-in it used to have?

Perhaps the show just isn't that strong?

I think this series has been first class, maybe its because Robin Hood adventures dont mean as much as they did 25 years ago. There arent enough making a point of tuning in and this series is perhaps also suffering for not having a Sunday repeat stimulating more interest.
All in all though, its a very expensive series to show to 3 or 4 million. Especially when animals doing daft things, thrown together for about £1.50 is getting more.
Actually I think thats pretty sad.

With the lead stars all going they have to cut their losses really and axe it - as if they continue with Archer as Robin Hood, it's only delaying the inevitable really.


I think overall it's a better series than given credit for (better than Merlin anyway), but this series has suffered from the loss of Guy of Gisbourne for much of the first half of the series, and then the Sheriff, and while Kate and Tuck are great new additions, Isabella isn't. Not believable at all she'd have been installed as Sheriff.

It's also suffered from it being widely known Jonas Armstrong (and Keith Allen) were leaving, so kind of makes the whole thing rather pointless.

Thanks for the answers on RH - very interesting and much appreciated.

Robin Hood aired Oct-Dec in its first two series, and there was no new series last year. The decline is due to a large number of factors, mainly the slot change.