[Archive 2008-02-27] Sports-heavy broadcast day for BBC One receives complaints; BBC responds

Historical archive — originally published 2008-02-27. This report records what was known on that date. It is not current news; subsequent events may have changed the situation. Wikinews closed in May 2026.

The BBC has responded to complaints that the BBC One schedule for February 23 was too sports dominated.

The statement came after the BBC received 124 complaints about the level of sports coverage on last Saturday. The schedule, which the British newspaper The Guardian defines as “sports dominated,” covered sport for eleven and a half hours of Saturday afternoon.

The statement added that “we [the BBC] realise that not everyone enjoys watching sport but there is undeniably a large section of our audience who do.” The statement also said that the BBC should provide content which will be enjoyed by the “large section” of society who enjoy watching sport.

The BBC’s sports coverage included eight hours of coverage of the Six Nations rugby tournament, which the BBC has secured the Six Nations coverage up to 2013, in a deal which cost the BBC 160 million GBP.

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