So the BBC do it badly, and ITV do it brilliantly, just as it should be you reckon?
Were you being facetious there or was that a genuinely stupid comment?
I think we can all see for ourselves that there's a very broad consensus that ITV did a better job with its coverage. I'm not going to dispute that judgement. However, while "better" is a relative term, it does not automatically mean that anything relative to it is "bad".
Even if you really, REALLY hated Huw Edwards' commentary (and lord knows, I was certainly tiring of it by quarter to 1), no balanced view could fairly call the BBC coverage "bad"; indeed, I think it's safe to say that the BBC's reputation for handling such events - domestically and internationally - remains in tact despite ITV's superior performance on the home front today, and even despite some unflattering press write-ups. The BBC's coverage was, at worst, predictable and unsurprising; it was emphatically "by the book" - but that's not close to being able to fairly judge it as "bad".
The BBC's was really playing to its strengths for its massive worldwide audience by playing it so safe - too safe, some might argue, but for such a high-stakes event, I'm not surprised that the BBC didn't move away from its conservative approach; ITV didn't really have much to lose in doing things a bit differently (rather than just offering up a carbon copy of the Beeb's coverage), and they clearly had a lot more fun with their broadcast, and quite rightly won a lot of fans as a result.
Let's face it; if ITV's coverage had turned into a bit of a car crash, there'd have been some amusing commentary pieces in the papers about silly presenter pairings or failure to judge the appropriate tone for the day or whatever; then everyone would have rolled their eyes at ITV for five seconds, and swiftly gone back to watching X-Factor's Got Talent On Ice. The fallout would have been minimal. If the BBC had tried to push the boundaries and failed, the fallout would have been enormous; national scandal declared across every paper, calls for the licence fee to be axed, calls for the director-general to resign for allowing our state broadcaster to bring shame upon our nation as the world watched, and all the other pious bullsh!t one could easily envisage being thrown at the BBC to see what sticks - people generally don't need much of a reason to start frothing at the mouth in disgust and indignation at some heinous crime that the BBC has committed, as Points Of View and Newswatch both prove.
I offer hearty congratulations to ITV for doing something interesting, and for not being lazy and just producing a clone of the Beeb's offering, but trying to do something a bit more fun and distinctive, and pulling it off. But I think we should all try to be a bit less incredulous that the BBC's coverage wasn't any more 'exciting' than it was - especially when it was actually a well produced programme for a global audience that ultimately erred too heavily on the side of caution.
