'Nauseating' BBC deal facing political probe?

Football is to blame for its own costs, and as for MPs complaining about any type of costs, lets see a full disclosure of all MPs expenditure claims, then we'll consider some possible complaints about BBC expenditure.

Why can't he just see that Football lost out to F1 because the Beeb see F1 more as a money spinner than the Football and therefore that makes F1 more important to them.

Keiran, the BBC technically doesn't need to "spin" money from anything it shows. I doubt profit came into it. They may turn a few pounds on SMS messaging or other phone technologies, but I'm sure they'll spend more than they get on their combined web/red button coverage. Ultimately it comes down to the potential audience, and there's clearly a wider potential audience for F1 than Scottish football.

And when does a sport become in the national interest. Is it in the national interest to show bowels for example? Or gymnastics? If every sport of national interest was automatically "ensured" TV coverage, where would it all go?

I find it quite amusing that with coverage of Leagues 1 & 2, The Championship, The Premiership, The Champions League, The UEFA Cup, The FA Cup, The Inter Toto Cup, The European Championship Qualifiers and Finals, World Cup Qualifiers and Finals, International Friendlies, Under 21 Internationals, Womens Football, Schoolboy Internationals, The Italian League, The Spanish League, The African Nations Cup and Copa America, AND the likes of Master League and Beach Football ALL being shown on television somewhere, or rounded up on Match of the Day, or being played down your local pub every single weekend, that Scottish football fans seem to think that there isn't enough "footy" on tv already.

Quite right Craig. Also funny that the Scottish Premiership - let alone the lower divisions - might be considered 'football'!

Think you are all kind of missing the point here, but nevermind...

Of course Scottish football is a global phenomenon followed by several billion people worldwide. It amazes me that the BBC would forgo such an opportunity in favour of a backwater sport like F1. I shall be writing to my MP to demand, next, that Welsh lower division club rugby be televised at all peak viewing times, as long at it doesn't interfere with Pobol Y Cym.

Morgan, Craig: brilliant, brilliant posts.

im sorry but BBC is BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation not Scottish Broadcasting Corporation so why should they have to show Scottish Football instead of something that will get a much much wider audience

FooAtari,

If you'd like me to put the slightly less tabloid version of my point, here it goes...

The BBC is driven by market forces as much as any other company, that means they will go with whatever piece of programming gets the most viewers, and with all those existing ways to watch football there is no captured market to exploit - with F1 they are guaranteed ALL of the viewers, not a tiny fragment of them, as is the case with Scottish football.

...cont...

...cont...

The BBC has a duty to make as many of their cutomers happy as possible and what with the gulf in the size of market between F1 and Scottish Football there can be no doubt they are doing that. The same is true of the gulf in interest between the English and Scottish national football teams. The decisions are driven by viewing figures, and the numbers say that not as many people want to see the Scottish national football team as they do about F1 or the English national football team, end of.

Trebor - the other side of that is the fact that N.Irish, Welsh and my fellow Scots dont see the BBC as British but more of an English television broadcaster and its totally different when the other home nations are supplied with the English national side / football competitions when there is NO interest in it, aint it??, but yet the BBC put it on BBC Scotland / Wales / N.Ireland regardless. I strongly doubt that if the BBC showed Scotland games that they would be broadcast in England anyways but solely in Scotland which is fair enough. It will be viewed as the typical stance of those in London are only concerned with what they want rather than that of EVERYBODY

You're not entirely correct there Craig, the BBC is meant to have a public service aspect, not just go chasing viewing figures. As they are paid for by a poll tax not revenue this is justified. Of course they also have to show that they are relevant and so viewing figures do come into the equation, but they are not the only consideration.

But i dont see that the government can do anything, as long as BBC are paying to get this coverage it cant be taken away from them, also ITV dont want it so if it were to be taken from BBC then it wouldnt be on tv in UK at all which would loose it quite a lot of viewers

Nosebleed - I think you meant bowls not bowels - LOL!

Anyway - I am sure that BBC Worldwide is doing deals as we speak to get the BBC coverage of F1 into every english speaking country in the world - supplemented by advertising and all other revenue earning opportunities.

I dont know why people winge so much - with ITV pulling out the BBC were probably the only terrestrial (whatever that means nowadays) broadcaster capable of taking on the task. If it wasn't them then it probably would have been British Eurosport and can you imagine the furore that would have caused to the British F1 fan & bernie !!

"The BBC is driven by market forces as much as any other company"


You have got to be joking in making a statement like that. The BBC maintains itself by ripping money out of the pockets of citizens by force. IF the BBC ever had to support itself it would be dead in a week.

SWilcox

I'd be a bit wary of publicising my email address on any public forum like you seem to have.

I think some of you are missing the point raised here. Why should viewers in Scotland (Who pay their TV licence to the BBC just the same as people in England) not be able to see THEIR team live on the BBC when we are expected to sit through an England game instead? Which is the case now. Yet when the case is presented as "we were outbid" they somehow manage to find a spare £200m to broadcast F1.

Buelliful

I never see my local team on BBC. I've always assumed that it's because they are a team with a small following. But now you point this out: I pay my TV licence too - should I feel aggrevied?

Are they an International team Simon? No? Oh well. I guess Scotland and England have a slightly bigger following than that, that's why they should both be on "normal" TV.