Heads up BBC 1 & 2 in chaos over Wimbledon

[TCM2007]

Murray match is cause massive rescheduling.

[digital_S]

Yeah, they're putting all the BBC1 programs on BBC2 (presumably 'till the Match finishes)

[speedyrite]

Genius! Everyone wants to watch Murray at Wimbledon don't they? Err well...

Why switch it to BBC1 when BBC2 was due to show tennis anyway and probably where tennis fans would be watching it anyway? Is BBC2 not available throughout the nation then? Or was it an "event of significant national importance"?

[Sneals2000]

Because more people watch it when it is on BBC One. Whilst hardcore tennis fans will know that match is on BBC Two, many casual fans - who would want to watch it, but don't know it is on - wouldn't. Putting it on BBC One ensures that they do - which is sort of a public service isn't it? The popular BBC One shows were also still available on BBC Two - the only disappointments are the BBC Two shows from 9pm to 10pm that were dropped, and they would have been dropped if the Tennis had carried on on BBC Two anyway.

They always put the big Brit matches on BBC One if they can, and because they are often scheduled after 6pm, when the Tennis is usually just on BBC Two, they have the schedule changes.

I believe that they had some fun with the broadcast EPGs (which have some propagation time) - so that at one point Crimewatch was in the EPG for BBC One and BBC Two at 9pm... However, it does prove the value of live updated EPGs rather than pure downloaded ones I'm afraid.

Given that 12 million were watching at the climax of the match at 10.30pm and the 7pm-10.45pm coverage averaged 8.6 million viewers - then they may have made the right call.

(If you add the ratings for the BBC One tennis and the BBC One programmes displaced onto BBC Two, it is likely that the total audience is higher than it would have been the other way round.)

[mikerr]

However, it does prove the value of live updated EPGs rather than pure downloaded ones I'm afraid.

I wonder how many recorders would have auto-extended for recording the tennis, or rescheduled recordings when the EPG changed?

[Tony Hoyle]

It's worth noting that Sky's system can't handle schedule changes that cross channels, so that wouldn't have worked in this instance either.. and with its inability to do automatic rescheduling will fare *much* worse from this screwup. It also deletes the series link...

[TCM2007]

Yeah not many (any?) systems built on the live EPG would have coped with the swapping from BBC 1 to BBC 2.

[cyril]

One of my skyhd boxes coped with the extension change and the other didn't .

However this is probably as no channel changing was done as it was on BBCHD.

Not sure if my TiVo coped as I've already deleted the programme.

[MikeB]

Because more people watch it when it is on BBC One. Whilst hardcore tennis fans will know that match is on BBC Two, many casual fans - who would want to watch it, but don't know it is on - wouldn't. Putting it on BBC One ensures that they do - which is sort of a public service isn't it?

I'm just amazed that in the almost 50 years since BBC2 started and the 25 years since Channel 4 began broadcasting, that there still appears to be vast swathes of the British population who will only watch stuff on BBC1 or ITV[1], and are oblivious to the fact other channels exist, let alone might have something interesting on...

Mike

[mutant_matt2]

Interestingly (or maybe not ;) ), I've been watching most of the tennis on BBCHD, which doesn't (yet) have most of these problems. I've also been catching up on a fair few matches on the red button Sport Multiscreen service. It's just a crying shame there isn't an easy way to get schedule info for this, and, to be able to record it! :(

Matt :)

[ozsat]

Did anyone here the announcement on Friday that you had to switch to analogue BBC2 to watch your local news?

[JudyB]

Did anyone here the announcement on Friday that you had to switch to analogue BBC2 to watch your local news?

Yes, although we were staying with the tennis anyway. I thought that it was somewhat ironic that the brave new world of digital TV is so limited. One interesting factor was that on Freeview (or more probably OnDigital) when it first started they *did* show regional programmes on BBC2, but not (I think) any longer and this does severely limit their ability to shift things this way...

[speedyrite]

Did anyone here the announcement on Friday that you had to switch to analogue BBC2 to watch your local news?

Yes, I was wondering how they managed that up in Cumbria and down in South-West England...

They should have just left the tennis on BBC2 where it was scheduled to be in the first place!!!

[dswallow]

Just split the picture in two and put the audio for one screen on the left channel and for the other on the right channel.

As far as I'm concerned, tennis can go on BBC six hundred eight eight and I wouldn't care.

Or put it on BBC 2 and run a slate on BBC 1 telling people to tune to BBC 2... sort of an "educational channel" informing them about the existence of a second BBC channel.