Wimbledon 2017

To be honest I agree. But if BBC2 has been scheduled to show a live sporting event, then show it on BBC2. If the BBC are determined to put all of primetime Wimbledon on BBC1, then schedule it accordingly.

My argument is purely that last-minute schedule changes just to put a sporting event on BBC1 when it is already scheduled on BBC2, are unnecessary. There's no-one in this country who only receives BBC1 but not BBC2, which was presumably a historical reason.

And yes, Wimbledon on Sky would get far lower ratings than it does on the BBC. But if the BBC are unable to "cope" with big games going out on BBC2, then they should either schedule such occasions on BBC1 *in advance* or hand the rights in to another broadcaster. Sorry if that's an unpopular view...

If Wimbledon is scheduled to be on BBC2 at a given time, then leave it on BBC2. Fans watching it can see the schedule and switch to BBC2, people who want to watch or record whatever's on BBC1 at the time, get to do that. Everyone's a winner and no-one misses out or is inconvenienced. Simples!!

It's an unpopular view because it's bloody stupid. The BBC are going to want to cater to the widest audience possible, so would rather mildly inconvenience the big fans who will follow tennis around the channels than to let the average punter have the possibility of missing a good match.

If you can't cope with changing channels when the schedules change, maybe it's time you handed in your TV Licence and relinquished your TV.

The compromise would be to do a major football tournament knock-out stage alternative schedule to allow for a Murray on center court after 7pm situation.

However, when the BBC have to draw up and send them to the PA - they don't know the seedings or if Murray will even be in the 3rd round or beyond. (I suspect they guess Wimbledon will put his matches on centre, last, so to encroach UK peak time viewing)
Allowing for all eventualities would make for a horribly messy and confused set of double listings.

Moving the scheduled One programming lock and stock over to Two, until GS&M, and keep run straps and frequent voice annos by Dame Sue is really the best way of doing it.

It may sound superficial but more people watch BBC One than BBC Two regardless of the content. I wouldn't have been surprised if something like New Top Gear during its heyday in the mid-2000s would still have gotten higher ratings on BBC One.

It wasn't purely due to the change of the channel, it was also because it was opposite Andy Murray at Wimbledon which is a big draw.



364 days of the year people moan that the BBC1 schedule is rubbish and all the programmes are rubbish and they want to axe them all and put something better on because nobody likes them. The one day they interrupt it for something more interesting, apparently now the BBC1 schedule is absolutely sacrosanct and can't be meddled with because millions of people will be devastated.

This is pretty straightforward, I don't know why it's considered such a puzzler. On BBC1 programmes are usually hammocked between two other programmes getting a big audience, and BBC2 is showing something with a lower audience. When Bake Off was on BBC2 it was between two programmes that got small audiences and was opposite Holby which gets about five million viewers a week. None of that happened when it was on BBC1, it was between two popular shows and BBC2 was getting about a million viewers opposite it.

Of course, in the eighties, when BBC1 used to show Panorama at 8.10 on a Monday, they used to deliberately show light entertainment on BBC2 opposite it which would always get massive audiences, often more than most shows on BBC1. Because it had very little competition.

It's got nothing do with people not having BBC2, and never has been.

It's the same reason BBC and ITV don't schedule the soaps against each other, that's why you find things like consumer and current affairs programming scheduled in those slots.

I think the problem is the messing about with the schedules at very short notice leaves viewers wondering what's happening with their favourite programmes, whether they are going to be moved to a later slot, moved to BBC2 or postponed altogether, as well as messing up people's recordings.


So considering this happens pretty much every year on the first Friday of Wimbledon, why don't they just be done with it and actually schedule the tennis to go on BBC1 all evening in the first place? At least that way everyone would know where they are.

Fine if we're guaranteed that we have British players on that evening. However, if all the BBC One shows are moved to Two and we're left with an evening of obscure tennis players that nobody has heard of on BBC One, it'll be a poor night of ratings on both channels.

It doesn't. Because you can't guarantee that Andy Murray will be playing on Friday night, as it depends on a nunber of things: his seeding, which half of the draw the defending champion is in, Murray actually reaching the the third round, any weather delays earlier in the week, length of previous matches, and also they don't necessarily have to put him on last (for example this coming Monday the middle match is Murray's)

To be fair, although it isn't guaranteed to be Murray, it would never be an 'obscure tennis player nobody has heard of'

But also, scheduled play on Centre Court could be done and dusted by 6-7pm, especially if there is a retirement or two as happened on Tuesday when they put Wozniacki v Babos on Centre Court as an extra match. If that happened on Friday, the extra match would more than likely be mixed doubles and you can't justify that match being prime time BBC1.