Published: December 4th 2009 - at 3:30 pmBBC has repeats, ITV has ‘classics’
Sometimes it’s the subtle semantic prejudices that are the most revealing, as here in Telegraph’s foray into the annual round of whinging about there being too many repeats in the Christmas TV schedules…
600 hours of TV repeats to be shown over Christmas
Nearly 600 hours of repeats will be shown on Britain’s four main television channels over the festive period according to schedules released by broadcasters.
Let’s play ‘Karate Kid’ – Wax on…
On the BBC’s two main channels, there will be approximately 270 hours of repeats over the holiday period.
The majority of BBC Two’s Christmas schedule consists of repeats. On Christmas Eve, the channel is showing only four programmes that have not been seen before, including the traditional carol concert from King’s College, Cambridge.
Wax off…
ITV One will also be broadcasting more than 117 hours of classics and old shows during the Christmas fortnight.
And wax on again…
On Channel 4, about 192 hours of repeats and old films will be shown during the festive fortnight.
In 2007, Channel 4 were notionally granted £14 million in state funding over six years, by the government, to help it out of a funding crisis, with the money due to come from the BBC licence fee. The deal was, however, scrapped by Andy Burnham, during his tenure at the DCMS (Jan 2008 – July 2009) before C$ received any of the promised funding, not that this has prevented the channel from winding up on the Telegraph’s shit list.
Interestingly, the minimal number of new programmes and new-to-terrestrial first-run films that the Telegraph deigns to mention…
However, there is some original fare for viewers. Original programming will include special episode of Doctor Who The End of Time, featuring David Tennant’s final appearance, and film premieres including The Incredibles, Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End and Santa Clause 3.
…all appear to be programmes that will be, or are likely to be, shown by the BBC, not that ‘The Santa Clause 3′ has much to commend it over a re-run film of paint drying.
If anyone’s contemplating a response extolling to joys of Sky, I should point out that its currently the peak autumn season over on the other side of the big pond and that, right now, News International’s national Fox TV network manages to air a total of two hours of original networked entertainment programming a day, rising to three and half hour on Saturday/Sunday thanks to an hour and half of late night comedy shows.
By comparison, the tradition ‘Big Three’ networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) air 4-5 hours of original networked programming on their prime-time and late evening schedules, plus another 3 hours during the afternoon (mostly daytime soap) and 2-2.5 hours of networked news programming in the morning and early evening.
Typically, the daytime schedules on Fox’s local affiliates are dominated by two Fox produced ‘court TV’ shows, ‘Divorce Court’ and ‘Judge Alex’.
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'Unity' is a regular contributor to Liberal Conspiracy. He also blogs at Ministry of Truth.
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Reader comments
Very true. Anybody know how many repeats Sky One will be showing over the Christmas period?
Most people like to watch the same stuff over Christmas, anyhow. (The Snowman, Wallace & Gromit, The Great Escape etc etc). Most repeats tend to be viewer-led.
Ahh. It must be nearly time to watch ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ again.
Three letters to solve this problem simply:
D V D
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More Beeb bashing from the right wing press, how unusual. Let’s face it ‘classics’ on ITV tend to include ‘I’m an nonentity, get me some publicity’ ‘The Yawn Factor’ Britains lost hope’ Ant and Dec.blah blah blah – TV for the intellectually bereft.
Aunty gets a lot wrong, but I’d rather have that than the vulgar mawkish pap ITV serve up. It is like a turning up 5 hours late to a dinner to be served everything cold, congealed and leaving a very sour taste in ones mouth.
The Daily Torygraph is in no position to lecture on repeats.
It repeats the same old warmed up brown shirt clap that it was dishing up 10 years ago, 20 years ago , 30 years ago ,40 years ago, 50 years ago. ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Anyone who prefers ITV over the BBC and Channel 4 needs their head checking.
No one expects there to be good TV over Christmas. You just have to hang in there till real life starts again on January 2nd.
Double standards, yes, though this site hasn’t exactly been supportive of the BBC.
I’ll be weeping like a fanboy during David Tennant’s departure from ‘Doctor Who’. Russell Davies couldn’t plot his way out of a paper bag but he knows how to write Big Emotional Moments.
I’m also looking forward to Sue Johnson in ‘The Turn of the Screw’. The BBC has made some fine ghost stories over the years and Johnson is a terrific actress. I’ll be tuning into ‘The Royle Family’ too: the last episode ‘The Queen of Sheba’ was as moving as it was funny. Maybe turkey just makes me emotional.
For the rest I’ll be watching classics/repeats (delete where applicable) voluntarily: ‘The Avenges – Series Two & Surviving Episodes of Series One’ (ITV), ‘The Prisoner’ on Blu-ray (also ITV) and ‘The Wire’ (HBO, originally shown here on FX).
The fact that Sky is showing it’s US imports the same week as they are broadcast in the US means that for once I’ll be joining ‘House’ and ‘Bones’ during the festive period.
People complaining about the Beeb’s Xmas fayre might be interested to see what the alternative has to present in a completely free-market environment. BBC America is one of the two ‘high brow’ channels available to US viewers along with PBS (which has a ‘suggested’ annual sub of $120 minimum). Here is the BBC programme schedule for December 22nd; the Christmas Day offering is unlikely to be much different.
Free-marketeers, be very, very careful for what you wish for, since you might just get it. In the meantime, the BBC license fee is without question the single greatest bargain on offer in the global communications market.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 – BBC America
12:00 AM Top Gear Winter Olympics Special – Top Gear Winter Olympics Special
1:00 AM Top Gear Polar Special – Top Gear Polar Special
2:00 AM Top Gear – Episode 6
4:00 AM How Clean Is Your House? US – Episode 17
4:30 AM
How Clean Is Your House? – Episode 8
5:00 AM BBC World News – BBC World News (60)
6:00 AM BBC World News – BBC World News
6:30 AM BBC World News (30) – Episode 12
7:00 AM BBC World News – BBC World News (60)
8:00 AM Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares Revisited – Ep 2 Momma Cherri’s
9:00 AM Gordon Ramsay’s F Word – Episode 5
10:00 AM How Clean Is Your House? US – Episode 18
10:30 AM How Clean Is Your House? – Episode 9
11:00 AM Cash in the Attic – Episode 12
12:00 PM Cash in the Attic – Episode 10
1:00 PM Cash in the Attic – Episode 13
2:00 PM Antiques Roadshow – Episode 20
3:00 PM Antiques Roadshow – Episode 8
4:00 PM Antiques Roadshow – Episode 21
5:00 PM Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares Revisited – Ep 2 Momma Cherri’s
6:00 PM Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares – Ep 4 Morgan’s
7:00 PM BBC World News America – BBC World News America
8:00 PM I’m a Boy Anorexic – I’m a Boy Anorexic
9:00 PM Britain’s Missing Top Model – Episode 4
10:00 PM BBC World News America – Episode 12
11:00 PM I’m a Boy Anorexic – I’m a Boy Anorexic
Most people like to watch the same stuff over Christmas, anyhow. (The Snowman, Wallace & Gromit, The Great Escape etc etc).
Lying back glugged out with food, sipping a glass of port and watching the above in a bloated haze sounds about as good as it gets on Christmas Day.
Wo watches TV at Christmas now? Get a Wii and live the dream and watch your nan hitting sweet forehands at Wii Tennis.
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