BBC scraps Grandstand 

24 April 2006 tbs.pm/280

BBC scraps sports show Grandstand BBC.co.uk

Oh, the wacky world of broadcaster reasoning.

“BBC executives believe that in the new digital on-demand world, in which people consume news, sport and entertainment on computers and mobile phones as well as radio and TV, it is associated with the past rather than the future.”

So 48 years of history, a well-loved brand and an instantly recognisable theme tune are thrown away in order to make the BBC’s sports output more distinctive?

Do you sometimes get the impression that broadcasters come to a decision and then look from a justification for it?

What am I talking about, “sometimes”? Do they ever reach a decision by actually thinking about something first?

Greg Dyke made, or allowed to be made, lots of really, really stupid programming decisions. Mark Thompson has changed that: now we get really, really, really stupid policy decisions.

Congratulations, Mark – another own goal.