- Wimbledon
- The Euros
- The British Open
- Formula 1
- Horse racing
- Cricket
- The new Scottish football season (It has just started although it seems like only yesterday the old season was ending - o wait, maybe it was only yesterday!)
Forgive me if I've missed out your favourite sport but it's bound to be on TV and radio somewhere. Usually on the BBC.
Now we have the Olympics. On BBC1, BBC2, BBC4, Reporting Scotland, BBC Online. Just about all the time. It's item 1 on the news at lunchtime, teatime and late at night.
I do surveys for a few online polling firms. I hasten to say I do this for money and not because I'm serving the god of merchandise, although that's sometimes how it feels. We're sometimes asked to evaluate products companies are thinking of marketing. The last one (on Tuesday) was about an 'instant breakfast' ready in 2 minutes in the microwave. In the wee space where opinions are invited, I asked about the calorific value of this feast, and whether a healthy option would be available - you know, gluten-free and lower-fat for diabetics - and about the point of asking people to shell out big money for something that they could prepare at home using fresh ingredients in about 10 minutes flat. I suspect I have missed the point. Nobody is expected to have these ingredients in their fridge. That's why companies can sell them freeze-dried, supermarket versions of real food. Except me. If I want a breakfast of mushroom omelette, I have the ingredients in my fridge. I doubt if my views can change the way these companies operate but it's nice to rattle their cage once in a while.
Other surveys ask about my TV viewing habits and want me to tick programmes I have watched over a 48 hour period on a whole range of TV stations. ITV3 is always in the list, as are Pick, Spike, W, Dave and Sky Atlantic. This is tricky for me because I mostly gave up watching live TV a few years back. I record anything I want to watch. That way, I can fast forward through the adverts, which I hate. As well as deciding 10 minutes into a programme that this is a waste of my time/an insult to my intelligence/a ridiculous idea and deleting it. I also record from stations that are never asked about in polls: Sky Arts, BBC4, Alba, the History Channel and RT once in a while.
Recently, I was asked about BBC current affairs programmes. That's also tricky: I don't watch BBC news programmes any more. I've seen and heard too many examples of BBC bias or omission. The latest was maybe on Monday when I heard a radio 4 interviewer ask a man who is standing for Labour in the Liverpool mayoral election about something Tom Watson, depute Labour leader, had said. You'll have to ask him, he said. And then about the Labour NEC's apparent bias against women. You'll have to ask the NEC, he said. He then invited the interviewer to ask him about the mayoral election, but she wasn't that keen. I don't want BBC presenters giving me their own personal version of what's happening in the UK. I want analysis of events. I don't get that from ITV either. So I"m reduced to watching C4 news. Heaven help us if C4 is privatised.
These surveys also offer me a very small space where opinions can be registered. I have tried telling the polling companies that their clients are not keeping up with viewing trends in an online world. I suspect the problem is that companies like the BBC which commission polls like big figures, preferably in the millions, to impress the Tory government which will set the TV licence fee in coming years.
Last year, I set out to annoy a polling company, which insisted on referring to every area of the UK as a 'region.' I pointed out that Wales is a principality, Northern Ireland a province and Scotland a country. They have finally changed their question about where we live. Lesson learned.
I have absolutely no reason to think that the polling companies will manage to persuade broadcasters like the BBC to change the way they think. The BBC is a bit like one of those huge tankers that need a lot of time to change direction. Sadly, I don't suppose the people who run the BBC see any need to change. They've got a nice life so why change it?
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