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Original poster

AIBU to think sport dominates TV schedules and trumps everything else?

39 replies

GoldAndSilverBells · 13/03/2026 14:13

Just that really!

Every afternoon on ITV1 this week, there are 4.5 to 5 hours of Racing from Cheltenham, (12.30pm to 5pm-ish!) and everything is knocked off for it.

Wimbledon, The football EuroCup, The football World Cup. (Mens and womens,) olympics, other football matches and 'tournaments,' rugby, cricket, athletics, motor racing, (like Formula 1,) other horse-races, cycling, etc...All of these - and more - dominate the terrestrial TV schedules when they're on!

When The Brits were on about 13 years ago, it was running over by about 10 minutes, and Adele was giving a speech after getting an award. They shut her down, and cut her off, because there was SPORT due on, and they cut the Brits short for it!

Nothing else ever pushes other programmes off with such regularity as SPORT.

I don't even know that many people who watch sport. And the ones I do know who watch it, don't watch much of it.

Yes, I know there are other channels I could turn over to, or I could 'get outside in the fresh air' but that's missing the point.

Why does sport trump everything?!

OP posts:
cardibach · 13/03/2026 20:18

It used to be a massive issue (I don’t like sport except, weirdly, the Olympics) when there was on,y terrestrial tv. Now I just watch streamers. Non issue.

Original poster
GoldAndSilverBells · 13/03/2026 20:13

5foot5 · 13/03/2026 14:46

I wish it had its own channel too. Sometimes when there is a big tournament on you can look at the schedules for the terrestrial channels and think "Right, nothing to see here" as it is just all sport.

Actually what annoys me sometimes is that other programmes are cancelled or delayed, not just for the actual match, but to make room for the discussion about it afterwards.

I have been incensed when a programme I want to watch is due to follow a big football match that then goes to extra time. Fair enough, I wouldn't expect them to cut coverage of the match. But the match eventually finished a few minutes before the programme I was looking forward to was due to start. Hurrah! Except not, because apparently they still had to then air 30 to 40 minutes of experts sitting round in the studio doing match analysis and showing highlights so the programme due to follow was cancelled anyway.😡

Show quote history

Exactly. When there's a football match, the actual match will be say, from 7.30pm to 9.15pm, (so 1 hour 45 minutes - that includes half time.) Yet the programme featuring it will be on from 6.30pm to 10.15pm. They spend an hour before it chatting shit, and an hour after it chatting shit! 'Analysing,' and droning on. Zzzzzzzzzzzz. 😴 Do people really sit and watch hours and hours of this drivel?! And 4 and a half hours of 'racing from Cheltenham?!' Every afternoon this week.... Zzzzzzzzzzz 😴

OP posts:
VimesandhisCardboardBoots · 13/03/2026 14:47

It doesn't bother me any more because I watch everything on-demand, but I used to absolutely hate it as a kid when I'd carefully set the video player before going on holiday and on coming home I'd find that instead of my episode of Star Trek Voyager I'd instead have the first 20 mins of Star Trek preceded by bloody snooker, because the snooker had overrun.

Or worse still, I wouldn't be able to record anything because my Dad wanted to fill the whole tape with a bloody rugby match.

5foot5 · 13/03/2026 14:46

GoldAndSilverBells · 13/03/2026 14:31

@YellowFruitBowl and @AgentPidge that is the sort of thing I mean/am talking about. Why shove it in the face(s) of EVERYone, and pull everything else off the schedule? And yes to a separate channel (or say 3 extra channels) for all the sport! Leave ITV1 and BBC1 and BBC2 alone. (And Channel 4 and Channel 5.) Have separate sports channels (terrestrial ones!)

I wish it had its own channel too. Sometimes when there is a big tournament on you can look at the schedules for the terrestrial channels and think "Right, nothing to see here" as it is just all sport.

Actually what annoys me sometimes is that other programmes are cancelled or delayed, not just for the actual match, but to make room for the discussion about it afterwards.

I have been incensed when a programme I want to watch is due to follow a big football match that then goes to extra time. Fair enough, I wouldn't expect them to cut coverage of the match. But the match eventually finished a few minutes before the programme I was looking forward to was due to start. Hurrah! Except not, because apparently they still had to then air 30 to 40 minutes of experts sitting round in the studio doing match analysis and showing highlights so the programme due to follow was cancelled anyway.😡

littlemissmagic · 13/03/2026 14:41

Apart from sport, I don't watch any live TV any more!!
I watch Netflix, apple tv etc at a time that is convenient to me.
So for me (and I suspect many others) it's not really an issue.
I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but I think the move to 'on demand' TV is partly the reason for this.

BaffledAndBemusedToo · 13/03/2026 14:37

I agree with you. It really annoys me. It started in childhood with Saturday afternoons on the BBC and ITV (when there were only 3 channels), and then repeats on Sunday morning. Argh.

Skybunnee · 13/03/2026 14:34

But you need to see it live -no good watching a race you’ve bet on the next day.
Whereas you can watch the Brits any time

LostFuse · 13/03/2026 14:33

GoldAndSilverBells · 13/03/2026 14:23

Possibly. But that doesn't really explain why it happens on BBC too...?

Show quote history

Sport is live so if the BBC showed it after the event there would be nobody watching.

Original poster
GoldAndSilverBells · 13/03/2026 14:31

@YellowFruitBowl and @AgentPidge that is the sort of thing I mean/am talking about. Why shove it in the face(s) of EVERYone, and pull everything else off the schedule? And yes to a separate channel (or say 3 extra channels) for all the sport! Leave ITV1 and BBC1 and BBC2 alone. (And Channel 4 and Channel 5.) Have separate sports channels (terrestrial ones!)

OP posts:
AgentPidge · 13/03/2026 14:27

You're right. I was well pissed off that all the programmes I usually watch were shoved aside for the winter Olympics. I mean, I can watch people whizzing down mountains or kicking a ball about for ten minutes and then I'm bored. I want my routine back. I think it's really unfair to treat regular viewers like that. But I do see why they want to broadcast the sport. I suppose they need to do it live. But whenever they do it, they're going to upset somebody.

YellowFruitBowl · 13/03/2026 14:24

I'd certainly happily delete all the omnipresent sport. Actually, I'd be happy with deleting all football. It should go on some kind of specialist set of channels the rest of us don't have to see. Down at the bottom of the channel list with all the niche stuff and porn.

I'm happy enough with the very occasional stuff like the Olympics, and I quite like athletics, come to think of it, though probably because all the events bar the marathon are really short.

Original poster
GoldAndSilverBells · 13/03/2026 14:24

I actually think that a separate terrestrial sports channel would be a good idea, and they can stick it all on there!

OP posts:
Original poster
GoldAndSilverBells · 13/03/2026 14:23

2thumbs · 13/03/2026 14:19

Presumably those sports attract more viewers (and therefore ad revenue) than the programmes they displace.

Possibly. But that doesn't really explain why it happens on BBC too...?

OP posts:
2thumbs · 13/03/2026 14:19

Presumably those sports attract more viewers (and therefore ad revenue) than the programmes they displace.