The one thing that’s really annoying me during the current World Cup finals on ITV and BBC1 is that other channels are still launching some good quality programming in the middle of the tournament – programming that I’m going to miss because I’m watching the football.
A few examples. On Monday, Channel 4 launched a major new history series, War of the World by Niall Ferguson. Meanwhile on BBC2, there was the new Steve Coogan series, Saxondale. This started at 10.00pm so you could watch the football. But if you strayed into the post match analysis you were going to miss some of this. On Tuesdays, BBC2 has started a major new documentary series on China. And later in the week on Thursdays, Horizon has just returned.
Now of course I could record all these to watch at a later date, but in a digital world where most of us only have a single tuner device (e.g. a normal Sky box or a Freeview box), that’s not as easy as it once was. And let’s be honest. Once you’ve got a four part documentary series on China backed up onto VHs, how long is it really going to be before you get around to watching it.
Perhaps schedulers think that fans of football are entirely different to fans of serious minded documentaries. Not the case.
I understand that the other channels have to offer some kind of alternative to the football, but maybe it should be more feature films, repeats of Midsomer Murders and Poirot. Don’t put all your good stuff out while millions are watching the other side.
Digital TV does allow some sollace – More 4 is repeating the Niall Ferguson series on Saturdays, but BBC2 isn’t streaming China like some documentaries it carries.