Zero Rated

‘REMOTE controls in the air, all of you who have ever watched any of the BBC’s digital channels. And now hands up, those who did so while in the UK and not in traction.

”Anyone out there?”

So that’s…no-one.

As the Guardian reports on its front page, figures supplied by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board reveal that last year BBC News 24 recorded 472 hours of programming officially watched by not one single person.

And it was not alone, so to speak, with 314 hours of the Beeb’s CBBC children’s channel viewed by no-one, not even a truant or a sickly youth bunking off games with a sore throat and a stomach ache.

Other shows with a zero rating include BBC4’s Talk Show, Julie Burchill’s documentary about her father, and all programmes surrounding the Corporation’s Big Read exercise.

In its defence, the Guardian hears BBC analysts say that any research into viewing figures on other digital channels, like ITV2 and Sky Sports, would also reveal shows with a similar zero rating.

Of course, the difference is that we do not have to pay for their funding with our TV licence money.

And Nude Wrestlers Say The Funniest Things was not awful tripe, but just a few years ahead of its time…’

Posted: 13th, January 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink