Thetownend.com

Dear The BBC-

My complaint is about the lack of lower league football coverage on 'International Break' weekends. Saturday 12/10/2013 is not the first time the Football League Show has failed to materialise on a weekend when The Championship is not playing due to impending International matches. This demonstrates bias within the BBC towards higher echelon sports and away from lower league football.

Cop for that Auntie.

 >:(

I don't think the BBC can read this.

They can. They probably won't.

As I said in another thread called 'Dear BBC', they're currently consulting with the public over their news/sport content. Go to the link I posted and have a moan on there.

It probably won't change anything, but I'm sure you'll feel better.

Whether people like it or not, lower league football doesn't get many people wanting to watch it on tv. If there was a need for it they'd show it. What is currently available is reasonable enough.

Its the BBC's job to provide content that commercial channels cant because of relatively small viewing numbers.

Essentially the BBC have said they will only make the highlights show if the championship is on. I blame the football league a little as well for not making sure its on regardless of the championship in the contract.

I firmly believe there should be more lower league football on TV, but as mentioned above, this is a minority opinion. The average Joe wants Man U v Liverpool for the 12th time that calendar year.  I feel the same when it comes to ground relocation.  I’d much rather we stay in a slightly ramshackle ground in the town centre, whereas the majority (football fans, not necessarily Swindon fans) would prefer to drive to a plastic bowl near a motorway junction.

But they can read the copy of the above that I sent to them so that they didn't feel left out.

I'm not sure this is true. I think most football fans would, like me, prefer a smartly redeveloped ground in their traditional home, along the lines of Moulineux, or Deepdale. Trouble is most developments are funded by selling expensive city centre land and buying cheap out of town sites.

or getting the council to build it - Donny and Swansea come to mind

Absolutely no chance of that happening in the present political climate...SBC are currently getting shot of leisure facilities to private companies..the kind of model the FC already operates under.

Enjoyed not having to hear Manish say  "Evening"...

Apart from maybe Germany how many 3rd tier games are as extensively covered as they are in England? Be happy with what you've got.

Yep, those two are tops.  I kinda meant an out of town plastic bowl v staying where we are with the CG as it is…… but I’d take a stand by stand redevelopment of the CG anytime.  I was more getting at the Reading, Shrews, Colchester, Chesterfields (and many more) of the world.

On a separate but similar note - Cardiff.  My point here is that I think the majority of Cardiff supporters, and supporters in general, would take the recent success i.e. getting into the Prem, over the mediocre years previously….. even if that involved selling your soul to a guy from Malaysia.  As I said, the problem for me is that the majority are happy with this (the same majority who’d rather watch Man U v Liverpool for the 12th time on telebox that year and the same majority who think the Madjetski is a better football ground than the CG).

Why? Its not unreasonable to expect the BBC to at least show the goals in some graveyard slot is it?

Quite...the combined crowds from L1 and 2 on Sat was nearly 100,000, that's a sizeable number of license fee payers, even before taking into consideration all the exiles etc, and fans who didn't go away, and would like to see their teams goals etc. got to be easy quarter of a million people,

The lower league coverage is already very good.

If you lot what to watch the goals just go on to skysports.com the same as every week...

not when they ignore it completely.

Sky Sports as the gentleman above you has suggested.

For those who can afford Sky sports it may be. Not everyone is so blessed.

I can afford Sky Sports but choose not to, Why pay all that money for even more Premier League coverage, which i won't watch, when I can save that money and put it towards my season ticket. I look at the goals on Sky Sports News, if I have time to fuck about and wait for the right 15 seconds of their coverage. By maintaining the Football League Show presence even when the Prima Donnas aren't playing, I could at least set the recorder to record the show and watch it in the morning.

It is just the usual bollocks that tier 3 and 4 are immaterial in the great scheme of things. Well, that is bollocks. it is only immaterial in the eyes of the Mighty Moguls that are rying to rule the game.

Even the Sky Sports coverage is poor this week.

If you wanted to see the goals they are available for everyone to see online whether you have sky or not. With the football league show you wait up over an hour to see the goals. Or just wait until the next day and watch them online. I don't understand what everyone is asking for? There was an international break so the bbc like it or not without the main feature decide it is not worth showing goals that are easily available elsewhere

By that argument then, why not scrap any football coverage on the BBC as all the goals are available on line or somewhere else every week. Want to see Manure every weekend- Maure TV is you friend. Chelski? Go to Chelski TV instead.....

Yes, but I want to know what Steve Claridge thinks about them? Where else can I get such insight? Unless I know someone under five.

Yes yes of course. Good list of free channels you put there.. For a couple of weeks out of a season you have to type skysports.com into your browser instead of watching the goals at midnight on bbc. End the world now

Despite the fact I am on here now, biting at your bait, I don't live my life on the internet via sky sports, faceache, twatter or similar. I switch my home computer on about once a week. I want to keep it that way.

you've spent more time whining about not being able to watch the goals then you would have if you just watched them.

But then that would have meant not being able to show such ratings smashes as "The Man without a Face" (compelling drama about a former teacher who's become a recluse since being disfigured in an accident is befriended by 12-year old boy who .... blah, blah) or "X: The Unknown" (a radioactive mud-like substance terrorises a Scottish village during the 1950s) or quality hard hitting investigative documentaries like "Sex, Stags and Prague: Stacey Dooley Investigates". You can see the dilemma here.

The picture quality is a bit shit on the internet highlights though, not so on BBC. The official site highlights are even worse quality wise, go to full screen at your peril, it's like watching the red pixels v the blue pixels.  

I might be at work though ;)

Shouldn't you therefore be working then?

Sometimes my work involves trawling the internet.......

Once every ten days?  :sherlock:

Surely it's less about availability and more about attitude?

The goals can always be found online but when the BBC effectively says "if the top 2 divisions aren't on, we don't show football" it is sending a clear statement about the value of these leagues.

If we accept this without saying anything despite the BBC asking for feedback via their website, we give the BBC the message that their view is correct and that there is no important football outside the top 2 leagues.

This ^

In triplicate.

With bells on.

Why do our highlights always look like they were filmed on a 1980's calculator?

I reckon it's down to the floodlights. Whilst they'll leave you with white stars in your eyes if you look at them, from the TV gantry the pitch area does appear gloomy. IIRC didn't the TV commentators for the Chelski game allude to the same. Finally the gloom accentuates the electronic advertising in front of the Arkells akin to being in the Chinese kitchen from OF&H when Del sold the owner some dodgy florescent paint.....

I've said it before and I'll say it again, our floodlights are pass poor. Particular the one Don Rogers side of Stratton Bank where only half the bulbs work. Only a matter of time before a Ref includes it in his after match report surely.

It did seem dimmer than usual yesterday.

We didn't have those pitchside advertising abominations yesterday.