From: rkl@csc.liv.ac.uk (Richard Lloyd)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv.uk
Subject: Re: Bite Back (+ BBC sports coverage in general)
Date: 18 Dec 92 10:51:19 GMT
Organization: Computer Science, Liverpool University

In article <724288630snx@apusapus.demon.co.uk>, tfj@apusapus.demon.co.uk (Trevor Jenkins) writes:
> Okay so a couple of months ago I wrote about the patronising attitude of
> the BBC in it's version of "Right to Reply".

What's always bugged me about these shows (esp. "Points Of View" and "Biteback"
and even, to a lesser extent, the best of the lot, "Right To Reply") is that,
like the Broadcasting Standards Council and Broadcasting Complaints Commission,
they do NOTHING about the complaints ! Oh yes, they might consider it (fluffily
in the case of Anne Robinson or in reasonable depth with the attractive
Sheena McDonald), but they still have NO POWER to, say, penalise the broadcaster
with fines/air-time bans etc.

> and they are still holding onto the "Aunty knows best"
> attitude. And this during a debacle (sorry debate) about the renewal of
> their charter.

Biteback is a joke title because it implies the programme has TEETH, whereas
it has the exact opposite. What really pisses me off is that people write in
to complain and when their complaint is aired on Biteback's "Hit List", it
is responded to with the most ridiculous brush-offs by BBC personnel.

> They had one item on sports coverage and how the national organisations for
> sports are having to fund the screening of their games on the BBC.

I think it's *outrageous* that sports have to pay the BBC to show their events !
Surely most other places in the world either don't pay or the BROADCASTER pays
the sports organisation for TV rights for coverage ?

> Netball is a sport that by the BBC's own admission has over
> 1,000,000 participants; which is far in excess of the number of registered
> cricketers!

I'm not a huge fan of netball (I prefer basketball myself), but I'd far rather
see it than reams and reams of EXTREMELY boring cricket and snooker.

> Cricket by the way got 167 hours of air time

As a TV spectator sport, cricket is the total pits, especially live coverage.
I'd rather watch baseball any day (and yes, I'm as pro-Brit as the next person).

> Tennis came in at 120+ and is a men's game as well

Er, I don't think so. Women's tennis is rather big on the international
circuit you know, not that the BBC hardly anything of it outside of their
RIDICULOUS 14-day Wimbledon saturation coverage. IMHO, only highlights should
be shown of the first week's play and Wimbledon should NOT be on both BBC 1 and
BBC 2 simultaneously (as often happens). Then we might get some more funds to
show OTHER Grand Slam events (US Open, French Open, Australian Open etc.). The
BBC's tennis coverage is ludicrously slanted towards Wimbledon :-(

Of course, having a satellite dish means I get Eurosport and Screensport (the
latter shows ALL World Cup Skiing live !) for free and they give me a chance
to see sports in more depth (e.g. the BBC only shows 35 minutes skiing a week
and that's highlights !).

Richard K. Lloyd, 
Computer Science Dept.,   JANET     : rkl@uk.ac.liverpool.compsci
Liverpool University,     Internet  : rkl@csc.liv.ac.uk
Merseyside, England,    Q: "What's the world's fastest home micro ?"
Great Britain.          A: "The Archimedes A3000. 4 MIPS for under 800 pounds."
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