jknight said:
Just posted mine on the BBC web site:
Complaint Summary: Lack of match Analysis on Match of the Day
Full Complaint: Following the match highlights between Man City and West Ham on Saturday night the match analysis was skipped and in it's place was a piece on Man United's premiership triumph. Why couldn't this have been delivered at the start or the end of the program - given that the premiership was secured on the Monday and United hadn't even played that day? (surely the clue is in the words "match of the day"). On what basis was this match selected (as oppose to the other 7 or so matches) not to show any analysis? I feel this was disrespectful to Man City and West Ham fans - surely the match analysis for all the games could have been shortened slightly and a space made for the piece at the start/end of the program? Once again the BBC Match of the Day team seem to have put little thought into the scheduling of the program and have alienated a section of their audience as a consequence.
Response from the BBC today - vague but predictable...
Thanks for contacting us regarding BBC One's 'Match of the Day' programme, broadcast 27 April.
I understand you feel Manchester United's premiership triumph could have been analysed at the end of the programme.
As this was the first edition of ‘Match of the Day’ to be broadcast since the outcome of the Premier League was effectively decided, the team were always going to look back at the headline teams and results. Manchester City were of course last year’s Premier League champions and Manchester United were their closest competitors for the trophy - this year Manchester City were Manchester United’s closest competitors so it was appropriate to talk about both teams.
That said, throughout the season – and across previous seasons – ‘Match of the Day’ simply endeavours to reflect the wider audience interest in the competitive nature between the two sides and the rivalries across the city hence they are often mentioned together in this way. They’ve been the two main competitors in the Premier League in recent seasons and it would be inevitable for both teams to be discussed in the first edition of the programme following the Premier League win.
Regarding post-match discussions in general, to clarify: there isn’t always full match analysis following every single game featured as highlights in ‘Match of the Day’ in any event. Each individual match and decisions about its coverage, discussion, analysis and where it appears in the running order, for how long and what topics that surround it, are determined by the match itself, i.e. its judged newsworthiness as to whether it contained any particularly big stories, talking points or if it was the most entertaining or unusual game of that day, for example. It’s all subjective, of course, because there can never be any definable right or wrong decision in such matters, but we’re of course sorry if you felt we should’ve done things differently here, and we take your points on board.
In terms of whether a match is discussed in the studio after the highlight clips are shown, or how long is devoted to any particular game or goal and so on, is also assessed in terms of how well the highlights clips and associated commentary itself had already summed up the game beforehand. As you can appreciate, every game is different and some will be comprehensively covered just within the highlights themselves, whilst for other matches there may be incidents or a wider perspective that warrants a lengthy discussion in the studio. There’s no set rule which determines lengthy post match detailed analysis in the studio and it’s flexible like any other programme format.
However we do apologise if you felt disappointed with the post-match analysis following the Manchester City v West Ham match, or annoyed that Manchester United was part of the conversation, and your comments are most welcome as we’re driven by audience reaction.
Having said that, I understand you feel strongly about this issue and I’d like to assure you that I’ve registered your comments on our audience log. This is the internal report of audience feedback that’s compiled daily and made available to staff across the BBC, including programme makers, channel controllers, and commissioning executives.
The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content.
Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.
Kind Regards
Victoria Carson
BBC Complaints