Being a fan of my lunchtime dose of Daily Politics, I was rather amazed to discover that, despite all the news and fallout from the referendum result, Daily Politics has been shortened and moved to a less prestigious time. In its timeslot at noon are the vitally important Bargain Hunt on BBC1 and Wimbledon on BBC2.
I decided to post a complaint to the BBC about it. I'll write my complaint and their response here. Do you think they even bother to read the substance of what's being said or just copy-and-paste a stock reply based on a few keywords in the complaint? I'll leave you to judge.
Complaint:
I often watch Daily Politics at it's regular noon slot on BBC2. I now see it has been moved to the more inconvenient time of 11, to make way for tennis. Even worse, it was cut to a mere half an hour.
Given the gravity of events following the referendum, how can it be justified to give such a low priority to coverage such important matters?
I also note that on BBC1 at lunchtime, you were showing Bargain Hunt. Does the BBC really think that a show about buying bits of tat from auctions, and who is the best at playing a game of tennis, are both more important than the political and economic future of the UK and Europe?
Response:
Thanks for contacting us about our coverage of the tennis.
The Wimbledon Tennis Championship is one of the most prestigious events in the sporting calendar and with many British hopefuls taking part this year; it has generated a huge amount of interest in the UK and around the world
In covering events as renowned as this, we’re faced with very difficult decisions as to what matches to cover and when. Ultimately, our aim is to bring our audience the most comprehensive coverage of all the key matches during the competition, but as a result, there have been occasions where we’ve decided to make late changes to the published schedules to accommodate a match which had been delayed or had gone on longer than scheduled.
On the other hand, we realise that not everyone is interested in Wimbledon or indeed sport as a whole. However, we have a duty to represent all licence fee payers and there’s a large part of our audience who really enjoy the coverage we offer.
That said, we realise that you’re not too happy with the amount of tennis we have on, therefore we’ve ensured that the issues you’ve raised have been made available to our production and sport scheduling teams.
Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.
I decided to post a complaint to the BBC about it. I'll write my complaint and their response here. Do you think they even bother to read the substance of what's being said or just copy-and-paste a stock reply based on a few keywords in the complaint? I'll leave you to judge.
Complaint:
I often watch Daily Politics at it's regular noon slot on BBC2. I now see it has been moved to the more inconvenient time of 11, to make way for tennis. Even worse, it was cut to a mere half an hour.
Given the gravity of events following the referendum, how can it be justified to give such a low priority to coverage such important matters?
I also note that on BBC1 at lunchtime, you were showing Bargain Hunt. Does the BBC really think that a show about buying bits of tat from auctions, and who is the best at playing a game of tennis, are both more important than the political and economic future of the UK and Europe?
Response:
Thanks for contacting us about our coverage of the tennis.
The Wimbledon Tennis Championship is one of the most prestigious events in the sporting calendar and with many British hopefuls taking part this year; it has generated a huge amount of interest in the UK and around the world
In covering events as renowned as this, we’re faced with very difficult decisions as to what matches to cover and when. Ultimately, our aim is to bring our audience the most comprehensive coverage of all the key matches during the competition, but as a result, there have been occasions where we’ve decided to make late changes to the published schedules to accommodate a match which had been delayed or had gone on longer than scheduled.
On the other hand, we realise that not everyone is interested in Wimbledon or indeed sport as a whole. However, we have a duty to represent all licence fee payers and there’s a large part of our audience who really enjoy the coverage we offer.
That said, we realise that you’re not too happy with the amount of tennis we have on, therefore we’ve ensured that the issues you’ve raised have been made available to our production and sport scheduling teams.
Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.
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