Wimbledon 2017

Not many if any. BBC One and BBC Two will be on the same multiplex. In any case, BBC One will gain the highest amount of viewers for the same programme regardless.

EastEnders moved to BBC2 and despite having a poor run currently, saw its lowest ever ratings on Friday purely due to the change of channel.

The same programme on BBC Two will always get higher ratings on BBC One, as London Lite says. This is why they move it from Two to One, in order to get the biggest possible viewing audience. Indeed I imagine this is why a lot of shows tend to transfer from Two to One permanently.


Don't know about anyone else but I know people who when they turn the TV on, immediately tune to channel 1 regardless of what channel it was last left on.

QI did that, but later changed its mind.

In this unpredictable, volatile era that we're living in, it's so nice that we have our yearly Wimbledon scheduling debate to rely on.

Of course it was no surprise that Murray moved to BBC One on Friday night. We've had the pros and cons debate many times but, in the end, the ratings always justify the decision. And the timings on Friday night could not have worked out any better for the BBC.

Although London Lite did pick up on one factor which did surprise me. Am I right in saying that this is the first time that EastEnders has been moved to BBC Two to accommodate Wimbledon?

I was surprised that they didn't just delay it until after the tennis. If anything, it might have increased its viewership coming off the back of Murray. It was an interesting decision to move it to BBC Two, causing it's already poor ratings to decline further. Not sure whether it was just a sensible scheduling decision or whether it's a wider indication of how the BBC feels about EastEnders at the moment.

Murray second on Centre Court tomorrow so probably no more scheduling dramas until at least Wednesday.

If you can get one on DTT, it's impossible not to get the other

I knew someone would bring up the only example where it went back to BBC Two

It's called "Wimbledon Sports Day" so very clearly it is simply 25 minutes of more tennis coverage.

Considering the producer of the current run of episodes has 'left' EastEnders, it wouldn't surprise me if they just want to get his run of dire episodes out, even if it means scheduling them on BBC2 against sport.

Not even hardcore EE fans are taking the soap seriously at the moment.

If that is the case be interesting to see if the schedule the World Athletics Champs for primetime BBC1 in their entirity.

Maybe, maybe not.

But do they get higher ratings on BBC1 because of being on BBC1 and not BBC2? or is it simply that the content lends itself to BBC1?

If the latter, that is what published schedules are for, and what the BBC are incapable of understanding or following.

However you spin it, I can see no need to depart from the schedules in these scenarios. If the BBC can't cope with keeping to schedules - then as unpopular as it could be, perhaps they should give up the rights to a broadcaster who can. FTA, pay, or otherwise.



So it's ok for Eastenders to get poor ratings but not a sporting event.....

What a ridiculous argument - the published schedule is not the be all and end all, if the BBC put Wimbledon on BBC One and move EastEnders and the One Show to secure bigger audiences why does that mean they should be giving up the rights? Yes, Sky would be able to do a special Wimbledon channel or two and provide uninterrupted coverage with no channel hopping, but the audience it would get would be absolutely tiny in comparison to the BBC.

Even if they went for someone like ITV, as ITV2 isn't an equal to BBC Two, they'd have nowhere to shift anything they took of ITV in the event of a high-profile match overrunning, and because they have the same public service requirements as the BBC, they wouldn't just be able to drop the main local and national news programmes either, which would mean disruption to the schedule if they pushed them back for Wimbledon.

Yes. Live sporting events are as much entertainment as the soaps, sitcoms or drama.