BBC count the cost of underestimating Channel 4 tactics (21 October 1998)

21 October 1998

BBC count the cost of underestimating Channel 4 tactics

By Robert Hardman

IT is unfortunate that the BBC have made such a fanfare of Grandstand's 40th birthday in the same month that they have lost coverage of Test cricket to Channel 4.

The exit door at BBC Sport has seen a one-way stampede of most of the big events and poor old Grandstand is starting to look like the average high street; a cluster of minor attractions and empty spaces as all the big names move out of town. Without Test matches, the Test Card may soon prove a more attractive prospect.

Even so, it is a little harsh of the Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport to call the BBC "lazy and arrogant" yesterday. It is not the BBC's fault that the sports themselves want more money. We do not blame a football club on a limited budget when their leading player decides to walk out to join an outfit which will double his salary.

Clearly, the BBC could have upped the ante on Test cricket and retained a quintessentially Beebish spectacle for an extra sum equivalent to what they spend on a few prima donna presenters. It was a tactical mistake to underestimate Channel 4 as a serious contender in the cricket market.

The BBC should have recalled the coup which Channel 4 pulled off after the 1990 World Cup. Then, they snapped up Italian football and a large terrestrial audience for a tiny fraction of Sky's Premiership budget. But even if the BBC had managed to cling on to cricket this time, they would doubtless have lost it at some point.

The BBC will still rise to the really big occasions like the World Cup, the Olympics and Wimbledon.

For the rest, we will simply have to get used to flicking channels and enduring the odd commercial break. It may be irksome but we adapt quickly enough, as ITV's excellent coverage of Formula One has shown.

Now the BBC must try to apply pressure on all those vanished sports to ensure, at least, that the corporation get as much access to news highlights as possible. Sponsors still like to see their brands on the BBC and the sports themselves need the extra profile.

Without any highlights, programmes like the BBC Sports Personality of the Year will become a sad comedy.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)