h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A good comparison between the BBC at its best and commercial television was the Olympics.

The BBC's 2012 Olympics coverage involved multi-channel screening of almost all events and everything that was going on. It was breathtakingly brilliant, however they were told it would be unfair for the BBC to cover the Paralympics too.

So Channel 4 covered that, and for every hour of Paralympics coverage we had 15 minutes of adverts, 20 minutes of the presenters nattering on about rubbish, 10 minutes of explanation, 10 minutes of reading out what people were saying on Twitter (if I wanted to read Twitter, I'd read Twitter – the reason I'm not reading Twitter is because I DON'T WANT TO READ TWITTER) and only about 5 minutes of actual content.

<BB<

" Do schools still use recorded BBC programmes instead of teaching to allow teachers time to go off for a fly fag and a gossip? "

NO, Smartarse, teachers don´t do that. Nor schools would allow it.

YOu should talk to teachers, at least different teachers from what you know.

{So Channel 4 covered that, and for every hour of Paralympics coverage we had 15 minutes of adverts, 20 minutes of the presenters nattering on about rubbish, 10 minutes of explanation, 10 minutes of reading out what people were saying on Twitter .... and only about 5 minutes of actual content.}

Er, if you don't have adverts, you don't have Channel Four. It's the basis of commercial television.

And have you watched any BBC shows lately? Not only do they top and tail shows with exactly-advert-length trailers and promos, but the ration of repetition to content is exactly as you have described. The BBC don't make many shows any more - they outsource them to production companies who produce shows that will easily transfer to any platform.

And the BBC's coverage of the Diamond Jubilee event was so trashy they've not been invited to cover the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2154927/BBC-receives-2-000-complaints-coverage-Queens-Diamond-Jubilee.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/11608290/BBC-misses-out-on-showing-Queens-90th-birthday-celebrations-after-Jubilee-criticism.html

I agree the coverage of the Olympics was excellent - I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, as I'm generally not that keen on watching athletics and stuff, so it was good indeed.

I did also think Channel 4 did a good job with the Paralympics - they weren't allocated as many hours of broadcasting, but the hours they did have covered what I was interested in. Yes, there was more explanation, but that was helpful for understanding how the events were to proceed relating to the classifications of the athletes. I also think I mustn't have minded some of the natter, as it was interesting to see the presenters so I wasn't aware of too much distraction from events. The theme tune was a massive earworm, too, so the adverts were a good opportunity for an internal singing session

However, I do like the Eurovision thing, where you can select the channel to see the twitter feed if you want it, or just see the TV on its own.