TV has too much power in the game
| 8
|
by user MattWells
So here we are, my team, Watford will later today play in the quarter finals of the FA cup, a chance for them to progress to the semis for only the 3rd time in their 125 year history and only 2 games away from playing in Europe next season. All in all, it's a big day, definitley the biggest game of the season so far for us and something that I really should be attending...but I can't.
Watford have been drawn away to Plymouth in this round, a round trip approaching 500 miles, not a problem in itself, once the draw was made me & my friends began to make plans for our trip down there, checking train times etc. to make the usual Saturday 3pm kick-off....and then TV got involved.
The BBC have the right to show 3 of the 4 games at this stage and as such need to fit them into their schedule and kick-off times get moved for their convenience - or perhaps more accurately for the convenience of the thousands across the country who never actually go to football but just sit on their fat arses sweating away in a Man United shirt in front of the tv. The BBC also have the rights to the six nations rugby and need to fit that in too, so how have they scheduled all this?
12.45 Football
15.00 A load of fat poofs chasing an egg and cupping each others balls for 80 minutes
18.00 Football
Fine, ok, this can work, they have Chelsea - Spurs (a London derby) to get in and then Plymouth - Watford, so to anyone with an ounce of compassion for the fans who actually want to go to a game, experience the unique atmosphere of watching English football live (especially in the cup) the logical thing to do is to put the Plymouth game in the first slot, ok the Watford fans have to get up a bit early but it's far better than the later slot where they get home at 2 in the morning and then have to face work (or school for the young 'uns) a few hours later. It'll take Spurs fans 45 minutes at the most to get back across London from Chelsea, all good, yeah?
Nope! The BBC have shunted the Watford game into the slot with the lowest viewing figures because it's too small teams an no-one will care - the TV audience is god, forget the real fans who want to go to games. They could've even had us on at the same time as the egg-chasing, they've got 4 channels for f**ks sake. Even better, move the peanut-hugging to the 6pm slot, apparently England are playing France, so no-one cares when the French get back.
So a 6pm kick-off in Plymouth for a 90 minute football match - the last train back to London on a Sunday from there is at 6.20 - nice work BBC. We know that the viewing figures will be low, that we're not Man United or Chelsea and that comparitively few people will want to watch our game, that's fine, we don't care, we just want to be able to watch it ourselves - by actually being there. Instead of inconveniencing the thousands that would have travelled down for this game, why not just be honest, admit no-one will watch it and just not show it so we can have a normal kick-off time?
Fair play to the club in all this who have done their best to make up for it by offering free coach travel to the game - a highly unexpected bonus when you bear in mind the contents of my last article on here about the Wigan replay. But they shouldn't have to do it - TV has far too much power over football these days, it's gone too far when the people who actually go to the games are being put out and made unable to attend because a TV channel wants a kick-off time moved to fit into their schedule better.
