Mar
27
BBC Sport: is it playing fair on Formula One?
Filed Under Media, Sport | Leave a Comment
The Formula One season starts this weekend and if you’ve visited the BBC Sport website recently you’ll be aware of this. The BBC has regained the rights to F1 from ITV and will be using its considerable resources to promote the sport.
The BBC’s ownership of the rights is great news for F1 fans. They have tried to keep the best elements of ITV’s coverage (Martin Brundle in particular) whilst reintroducing the best bits of BBC coverage of old – namely the theme tune. The people who run sports know that the BBC may not be able to pay top whack to buy the rights but that the marketing benefits of being on the BBC are considerable. Recently, people have suggested that the FA Cup has suffered because it’s not been on the BBC.
I support a publicly funded broadcaster and the concept of the ‘crown jewels’ which guarantees certain events on free to air TV. And it’s fair enough that the BBC is allowed to spend money promoting its events.
What I cannot support – and seems totally unfair – is that BBC Sport editorial decisions appear to be determined (at least in part) by whether or not the BBC owns the commercial rights. Sky Sports have occasionally been accused of pretending that events for which they don’t hold the rights don’t exist because get coverage on Sky Sports News. But it’s a commercial operation without any great reputation for news gathering.
For example, in the last three weeks we’ve had:
- a daily blog on the progress of F1
- speculation on the speed of Mclaren
- breaking news lead story on the new points system
- photos of the launch of the new cars (which I also remember from last year)
This throws up some serious issues for the integrity of news coverage by BBC Sport. It’s not easy to please all fans of minority sports. But should F1 get more coverage than rugby league? Or the women’s cricket world cup victory? Maybe, but the decision making process should be clear and fair, uninfluenced by commercial decisions – or else, what’s the point of a publicly funded broadcaster?
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