Just realised that Newsnight Scotland isn't on tonight; instead we have last weekend's Scottish football highlights. I'm not pleased at this sacrificing of what limited political coverage we have, and particularly because I'm not entirely convinced that the football coverage is worth it.
I love football; watching it live, on tv, and occasionally playing (despite the fact I'm pretty poor at it!). I also love politics, news programmes, and debate. Why does BBC Scotland appear to have such little control of the schedules that they have to sacrifice one for the other? Is this a one-off, or indicative of the recently bemoaned state of Scottish television coverage?
BBC Scotland's football highlights show fits poorly on a Wednesday night in any case. By this point in the week, I've practically forgotten about last weekend's matches, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming fixtures. Monday night is a better timeslot, but Scotsport's coverage is pretty dire.
Match of the Day and MotD 2 are in my view the kings of football highlight shows. They do replays, analysis with fairly knowledgeable pundits, and high quality camera work. I enjoy watching it, and wouldn't want it removed from the schedules, even in an independent Scotland (if we had the same situation as in Belgium, we could continue to watch BBC anyway). I'd also like to see more football from the rest of Europe, and I'm pleased to see that Channel 5 have now started showing Italian games. Perhaps in the interim, we could have a BBC sport digital channel?
Present Scottish football coverage, and often Scottish football in general, can't hold a candle to MotD, and that's a real shame. It may be a funding issue; it may be a demand issue (would most lovers of the game rather watch Caley Thistle and Gretna, or Chelsea and Arsenal?), but Scottish fans (and Scottish politics enthusiasts!) are losing out.
I love football; watching it live, on tv, and occasionally playing (despite the fact I'm pretty poor at it!). I also love politics, news programmes, and debate. Why does BBC Scotland appear to have such little control of the schedules that they have to sacrifice one for the other? Is this a one-off, or indicative of the recently bemoaned state of Scottish television coverage?
BBC Scotland's football highlights show fits poorly on a Wednesday night in any case. By this point in the week, I've practically forgotten about last weekend's matches, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming fixtures. Monday night is a better timeslot, but Scotsport's coverage is pretty dire.
Match of the Day and MotD 2 are in my view the kings of football highlight shows. They do replays, analysis with fairly knowledgeable pundits, and high quality camera work. I enjoy watching it, and wouldn't want it removed from the schedules, even in an independent Scotland (if we had the same situation as in Belgium, we could continue to watch BBC anyway). I'd also like to see more football from the rest of Europe, and I'm pleased to see that Channel 5 have now started showing Italian games. Perhaps in the interim, we could have a BBC sport digital channel?
Present Scottish football coverage, and often Scottish football in general, can't hold a candle to MotD, and that's a real shame. It may be a funding issue; it may be a demand issue (would most lovers of the game rather watch Caley Thistle and Gretna, or Chelsea and Arsenal?), but Scottish fans (and Scottish politics enthusiasts!) are losing out.
3 comments:
sportscene in it's quick review of weekend action is much better than scotsport yet it would be better if it was broadcast over the weekend the games were played. If the BBC had never lost the contract for scottish footie and i had never seen MOTD i would probably be happy to spend Sat nite watching BBCfootie.
In fairness, the coverage of Scottish politics is to the proper newsnight as Sportscene/Scotsport is to MOTD...
This isn't really the same at all, as mine isn't a thinly veiled cry for independence.
Swing and a miss.
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