How to deal with Football

[djtaylor]

Having just had a load of recordings cocked up by the BBC due to the overrun of the FA Cup final, how about some logic to deal with *any* football match. Ok, so the teams comprise a total of 22 overpaid, useless players who after 90 minutes are unable to produce a result so they keep going. In my world, there would be snipers in the stand who would systematically take out players starting with the goalie until a result is scored. However, the BBC not only allocated 4 hours 40 minutes in the schedule to cover the 90 minute game, it then over ran so they still had to have the post match postmortem.

I complained to the BBC who pretty much said "We can't help it if the match over runs, it was in the schedule that the FA Cup was on" to which I pointed out "I have no interest in football so wouldn't be looking for it would I? How about scheduling 2 hours *after* the match to make up for the players inadequacies?".

So...

Sub, how about looking through the EPG for a set of defined keywords like "football, match, final, game" etc and then offering to automatically pad by say 2 or 3 hours, any futher recordings for that day on that channel.

I have to say, I can sense a lot of frustration with the impending World Cup kicking out a lot of schedules while people watch groups of 22 overpaid actors also fail to score results".

I thought the whole point of channels dedicated to sport was such that those of us with no interest didn't have to be subjected to watch it.

Go on Sub, you know this would be a cool feature!
David

[colin]

Thanks to the world cup committee, terrestrial channels can show the matches so that all countries can watch. Time to give the boss notice that I will be working from the pub a lot in June

[reboot]

Just schedule a manual recording on that channel, that runs for 7-12 hours, depending on who's playing, thus estimating the actual run time of the overrun.

[djtaylor]

Thanks to the world cup committee, terrestrial channels can show the matches so that all countries can watch.

Yes, it's very unfortunate! :p
I wouldn't mind that much if they just managed to employ players that could actually score goals instead of act such that they could fit into the alloted broadcast schedule or alternatively, the broadcaster just says "Well we're sorry, they've spent too much time acting and not playing so we'll just have to leave it there and report the results on the 9pm news". AWESOME!

David.

[djtaylor]

Just schedule a manual recording on that channel, that runs for 7-12 hours, depending on who's playing, thus estimating the actual run time of the overrun.

Yes, I think I might consider stopping my direct debit to the BBC for my licence fee and invest it in hard discs instead and use this as my defence. Supply of Goods and Services Act, Product (BBC TV) not fit for purpose, contract broken.

David.

[Muttley]

Whilst you have my sympathy, There are a lot of us who like football. I was at the FA Cup final in Cardiff and not only did West Ham lose but when I got home I'd lost my weekly recording of Doctor Who, NOT a good day. Dr Who is repeated on Sunday and Friday so I'd rather have the extended sports coverage as a rule and keep paying my licence fee in support of a truly great media service that belongs to EVERYONE. m2p

[djtaylor]

Muttley, I don't want to get too far off topic (ok, any further ) as I said, I don't mind the sporting events but I just wish the broadcasters would expect overrun and schedule loads of time afterwards. If the event runs to time, they can always go to the studio and discuss the quality of acting in the case of football for lengthy time. I just don't want all my recordings screwed up just because of such events.

World cup time is going to be fraught with problems for everyone no doubt.

David.

[stefan]

I agree with your first post here

I thought the whole point of channels dedicated to sport was such that those of us with no interest didn't have to be subjected to watch it.

[bluesxman]

I agree with your first post here

I thought the whole point of channels dedicated to sport was such that those of us with no interest didn't have to be subjected to watch it.

Ahh, but as you have channels dedicated to pretty much every subject these days, that doesn't really ring true. Unless, perhaps, the BBC in this case should just show nothing?

[stefan]

No. Sports is very important. It needs be on its very own channel. Somewhere far, far away.