Monday, 11 August 2008

Beeb watch

With the Olympic Games underway in Beijing, scores of BBC Sport staff have flocked to the "greatest show on earth" at licence fee payers' expense.

With resources clearly diverted to Olympic sports ever since London was awarded the 2012 Games, what does this mean for squash's coverage on the Beeb?

As a non-Olympic sport, squash appears to have already felt the pinch. The BBC's decision after London won the 2012 Games to divert most of their coverage to Olympic sports has meant that the squash section on their website is now updated only infrequently - keen readers of the squash page (sadly relegated to the "Other sports" section with Darts and Bowls) will have noted that the last proper article was published on 22nd May.

To give the BBC its due, this last article was a proper feature, with the journalist Pranav Soneji interviewing Lee Beachill at the Super Series finals. There are photos of the two playing a game together, and the article is very positive in tone.

I doubt this page will receive any attention in the next month or so, and it'll be worth keeping an eye on it to see if things pick up post-Beijing.

I'm aware that at least one governing body sends stories in on a regular basis, so some lobbying for further coverage by the BBC is being done.

As far as any TV coverage on the Beeb goes, the next time when anything is broadcast is anyone's guess. If I remember rightly the last coverage was at least a year or two ago, with around half and hour's highlights of the British Open shown on a Saturday.

It's also worth noting that the 606 spin-off squash page often follows up stories that are on the main BBC sports site, and Pranav Soneji's comments on this page show that he - at least - is well-disposed towards the sport.

BBC squash page
Squash at 606

1 comment:

  1. At least it still has a squash page. Newspapers seem to have cut their coverage too; there hasn't been any decent coverage in the Telegraph for months.

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