Rant of the Month
Play, Play, Repeat
We are all prone to having a bit of a whinge about the number of repeated programmes on television and no more so than over the past six or seven months. I do believe some (not many) are worth repeating e.g. Saving Lives At Sea, wildlife programmes or films but, the amount of repeated rubbish recently has excelled itself!
I had a few spare minutes so took the time to look at the TV programmes page for three consecutive days in October with just four channels included, and the figures I’ve shown don’t include national or local news programmes as they’re always up-to-date. The channels were the basic BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4 and the results were quite gobsmacking for the three days from around 6am to midnight:
BBC1 had 28 repeated programmes out of a total of 61 programmes
BBC2 had 49 repeats out of 66
ITV had 8 out of 51
Channel 4 had 64 out of 90
It’s not rocket science to note which channels don’t seem to want to make an effort. Or maybe they feel it not necessary? I fully appreciate that it may have been difficult to come up with new programmes due to all the social distancing rules in place at the time, but ITV managed it so why can’t other channels?
Given that so many programmes have been repeated, are the BBC going to reduce the price of the TV license? (Note to self, must never think of becoming a comedienne!) If they can’t offer over-75s a free license, they’re hardly likely to reduce it for Joe Public are they.
I’ve spent a lot of time looking at other, less well known channels and their programmes can often be more interesting, despite also being repeats from years ago. But at least they’re watchable!
Joan Hamilton-Smith
Comments