The BBC will send 437 staff to Beijing, a level essential, it says, for extensive programming.
Might that not be more than the number of athletes we’re sending?
*No, not really.
Why I Love The Licence Fee*
June 30th, 2008 · 11 Comments
Tags: Your Tax Money At Work
11 responses so far ↓
1 So Much For Subtlety // Jun 30, 2008 at 10:11 am
The next step is to check whether they are going Business or Economy.
Australia sent its entire Olympic team to Athens in Economy. Except for the Officials from the Australian Olympic Committee. They went Business. I bet the BBC will send a good portion up front.
2 Letters From A Tory // Jun 30, 2008 at 10:11 am
The Olympics is not ‘public service broadcasting’ so there is no need for the BBC to use up our hard-earned dosh on an event that very few people actually watch.
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com
3 pj // Jun 30, 2008 at 10:41 am
It’s worth remembering that Beijin is 8:00 hours ahead of the UK. Presuming that the events are scheduled to begin late morning & finish early evening Beijin time. Say 11:00AM -7:00PM, that’ll give 3:00AM – 11:00AM in the UK. Hardly peak viewing hours unless you’re a complete sports fanatic.
Essentially, most of the coverage that viewers will actually watch will be recorded high lights with the video feed provided by the games organisers. Even the interviews with the competitors will be coming out of the can because the entrants for the next day’s events are hardly likely to want to discuss their prospects at 4:00 in the morning or stay up till the same time to mourn their failure.
About the only live TV we’re going to see is BBC staff interviewing each other in the small hours, probably on grossly inflated overtime rates.
4 Neil Harding // Jun 30, 2008 at 11:36 am
According to the official site, there will be 21,600 accredited media from around 140 media organisations at Beijing – that is about 1,500 per organisation. As the BBC figure includes technical staff not just media it would seem the BBC is under-staffed for this event.
5 Neil Harding // Jun 30, 2008 at 11:39 am
That should be ’150 per organisation’ but still makes the point that the BBC is not over-staffed for this event when you consider their figure includes technical staff.
6 JuliaM // Jun 30, 2008 at 11:56 am
Ah, yes, the ‘But Mum, all the other kids are doing it too..!’ argument…
7 Kay Tie // Jun 30, 2008 at 12:09 pm
You can’t say “437 – BBC technical staff
8 The Great Simpleton // Jun 30, 2008 at 12:45 pm
On past form that will probably be about 10 staff for each medal we win. However as some of those will be events we won’t be able to watch in detail ie sailing, I supect it will be more like 20 staff for each medal.
9 Eva // Jun 30, 2008 at 6:00 pm
It’s not even that I mind; it’s the menacing tone of their bloody TV license ads.
10 John A // Jul 1, 2008 at 1:07 am
You’re right Tim. All you need is a webcam, a microphone and someone to talk into the microphone.
Simple.
Then just stick it all on YouTube.
Cost to British taxpayer: minimal.
11 Tim Newman // Jul 1, 2008 at 5:39 pm
According to the official site, there will be 21,600 accredited media from around 140 media organisations at Beijing – that is about 1,500 per organisation.
I doubt many on here would deny that most other news organisations will be using the Olympics for a jolly as well. The objection to the BBC joining in on the fun is the manner in which the British television viewers are forced to pay for this jolly.
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