The challenges of the next few weeks for BBC schedulers

What are the BBC’s top priorities? It’s a difficult circle to square. 

On the one hand it has to try to serve all audiences with a diverse range of programmes. On the other, it has special responsibilities. 

The past few weeks have presented BBC schedulers with unusual difficulties.

This is the first time for decades that an election campaign has coincided with a major football tournament. 

The last time was in 1970 when the election campaign and the World Cup coincided but back then far fewer games were shown live.

BBC schedulers have had to balance conflicting demands.

• Showing the principle live games which the BBC has rights to – on BBC One. 
• Minimising disruption to news programmes.
• Ensuring a full range of election programmes are shown – including fairness in the scheduling of party election broadcasts and interviews with the main party leaders.

It is about to get even more complex.

We still don’t know which matches in the later stages of the Euros will be on BBC One and which will be on ITV 1.

And Wimbledon starts next week too – once again, during the first week at least, the early evening coverage will be on BBC One.

The complexity of the situation is reflected in the provisional schedule on 5th July – the day of the election result.

In the event of BBC One showing both the day’s quarter-finals, there will be no early evening news hour.

So what has the BBC had to sacrifice in its schedules and what does it tell us about its priorities?

The most obvious casualty is the inevitable one.

EastEnders has been shunted off to BBC Two some nights, inevitably leading to lower overnights.

The soap has staged a bit of a ratings recovery of late. It’s still well behind the ITV soaps in the overnights but episodes have been getting around 4m viewers once timeshifted viewing and iPlayer requests are included. The team deserve respect for increasing the audience. 

But the disruption to scheduling will not help the recovery – even though a significant chunk of the audience isn’t watching live.

It is, however, the right decision for a public service broadcaster. The news, election coverage and sporting events of national importance must come first.

The focus on live event TV also helps to confound those who take pleasure in their predictions of the death of linear TV.

The past week has been a reminder of how BBC One is at the centre of public life and brings diverse audiences together – that is not to belittle ITV’s coverage of the Euros or the election, more about the overall centre of gravity.

But it also highlights what I have said before.

ITV without Emmerdale or Coronation Street would be unthinkable and would be diminished.

But does the BBC need 4 episodes a week of EastEnders on its flagship channel? 

The evidence at the moment suggests it doesn’t. EE is just another programme which, like any successful show, has its audience.

I cannot help but wonder where things are going in the longer term.

Acknowledgements