Snooker - who wants it?

[bibblebub]

A quarter of a century ago there was perhaps some justification for having a lot of coverage of the snooker World Championships - colour tv was still relatively new and so there was a sizeable minority of people who were interested in watching it (I was one of those people).

But now, it's well past it's sell-by date and is given far too much coverage by the BBC (4 hours at least each weekday in the afternoon and evening, and more late night too); there should be at most an hour's highlights per day (or even only once a week) with the semi-finals or maybe just the final shown live. It's just a bunch of people, most of whom no-one's heard of before, hitting balls around a table with very little scope for variation in gameplay.

Anyone agree, or are you an avid watcher?

[saxy_jag]

It's actually great to study by. It doesn't distract like most programmes.

[B00]

My grandma used to watch it on her B&W TV! Along with Saturday afternoon wrestling, she cheered along Big Daddy like a good 'un and always astonished me with her venom toward Giant Haystacks.

[bibblebub]

saxy_jag - it is soporific too

B00 - bet your grandma wouldn't have / doesn't like the WWE

[ABerrant]

Snooker coverage at the expense of a quiz show titled Pointless and repeats of Animal Park and Diagnosis Murder - what is the BBC thinking?

[bibblebub]

So you have been watching it then?

I watch a lot of sport but I would prefer to watch Pointless to snooker.

[cazzz1975]

I have found some snooker interesting,However I am not a fan and would not tune in specifically to watch, but as aberrant says, the programmes interrupted are /afternoon evening filler shows, Im sure snooker fans enjoy watching the tournaments when they happen. surely there are plenty of other channels to choose from?

[boxtops]

"... and for anyone not watching in colour, the blue ball's just behind the brown one...."
anyone remember that little gem?!

[ttfn]

oh yes boxy! at the time we only had b&w too

[chrissa1]

This proves that there are more and more reasons why the BBC & ITV should have a dedicated Sports Channel. I've said on here many times, why penalise the Great British Public who would rather Not watch hours and hours of sport be it football, snooker or motor racing?

[bibblebub]

It's not sport in general, it's snooker in particular which no longer deserves the coverage it gets.

[cazzz1975]

if they didnt get the viewers they would not show it, someone must be watching it enough to justify the fee they pay to show it. the bbc wont do anything if it costs them more money than they stand to make.

[snags]

''Snooker - who wants it?''

I feel the same about golf. Hi cazzz :-)

[bibblebub]

yes that's true

Oh well, guess I'm in the minority (quelle surprise).

[Buenchico]

I'm not a great fan of snooker but I also dislike statistical fallacies. The final of the World Snooker Championship still pulls in an audience of around 8 million viewers:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...k_selbys_balking.html

That's the same size audience as Dr Who gets, bigger than Casualty gets, 4½ times what Barcelona v Arsenal got, and 90 times the audience for the Haye v Ruiz boxing match:
http://www.barb.co.uk...klyTopProgrammes?_s=4

Chris

[ABerrant]

The 8 million viewers quoted for the World Championship Snooker final dates from the 2007 competition. BARB puts the 2009 figure at a shade over 3 million.

Regardless of the figures, the BBC has a contract to televise this event (along with three other tournaments) until 2011.

[trt]

I would rather watch the snooker in the afternoon than the pointless pointless, sorry for the pun

[mickrog]

i feel the same about soaps

[Tizzi24]

I quite like the snooker, although not a sports fan in general.

[Mattk]

The BBC is very biased to some sports over others with Snooker and F1 being 2 prime examples. I am a Moto GP fan and get very annoyed by the amatuerish and all too short coverage it receives coupled with the fact it gets tucked away on BBC3...this is the worlds premier motorcycle racing class for Pete's sake.