The BBC has turned down the chance to screen Saturday’s big track comeback of Olympic golden girl Keely Hodgkinson on one of their main linear channels, preferring instead to show a series of repeats.
It had been expected that the BBC would grant prime-time coverage to Hodgkinson’s bid for the longstanding world indoor 800 metres record after she attracted 9.1 million viewers for her gold medal winning performance at last year’s Paris Games before being crowned the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.
The BBC, however, will show Saturday afternoon repeats of the film Mr Malcolm’s List and Flog It! on BBC Two, alongside repeats of Escape to the Country and Blue Planet II before Final Score on BBC One. The athletics will instead be available on iPlayer and the US-based FloSports rather than a linear channel or indeed the BBC’s Red Button.
The Keely Klassic meeting also includes other leading British athletes, notably Georgia Bell’s tilt at the British 1500m record and world champion pole vaulter Molly Caudery, before culminating with Hodgkinson’s world record tilt at 4.30pm. The timing of Hodgkinson’s race would seem potentially ideal to capture a wider sports audience who might then watch Final Score and the incoming football results service.
BBC One’s once blanket Saturday afternoon sports coverage has changed dramatically in recent years following the wider loss of live rights to subscription channels. Domestic athletics, however, is among those sports in search of more broadcast exposure. Its rich history, coupled with the emergence of new stars led by Hodgkinson, would seem to be a perfect fit for a public broadcaster lacking top-tier live sport.
BBC’s once £3 million annual contract with UK Athletics ended in 2020, but the BBC has since regularly screened major championships and Diamond League events either on a linear channel or as part of their digital services.
It agreed a deal on the eve of last year’s European Championship to show European indoor, outdoor and cross country championships until 2027 and had an agreement last year with UK Athletics to show the national championships and London Diamond League.
There is an argument that the exact platform makes less difference in a digital world but, with athletics trying to reach beyond its core fanbase, the clear preference and hope would have been for BBC One, BBC Two or the Red Button.
The BBC has also made a major point of trumpeting its coverage of women’s sport and, with Hodgkinson emerging as the standout sports star of the Olympics, there is significant disappointment inside athletics that her first race since will not be screened on one of the BBC’s two main channels.
Hodgkinson’s gold was the most watched Olympic moment last summer in Britain, with athletics commanding most of the highest Paris viewing figures when it was screened nightly on BBC One.
The sport is now trying to capitalise on that momentum with various new innovations, including Saturday’s Keely Klassic, which will fuse elite sport with entertainment and music, as well as Michael Johnson’s new Grand Slam track league, which begins in Jamaica in April.
There are also three major athletics championships this year – the world and European Indoor Championships in March – before the season concludes in Tokyo in September with the World Athletics Championships.
The BBC has not explained why Saturday’s race will not be shown on BBC One, BBC Two or the Red Button but believe it is supporting the Keely Klassic rather than snubbing it by showing it on iPlayer rather than linear TV. It said that it would be easily accessible to a huge digital audience across the UK, with the added convenience of on-demand viewing. It also said that it makes a wide range of sports content available on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.
