The BBC should think twice before buying back the Boat Race

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The BBC should think twice before buying back the Boat Race

Posted On : Apr-20-2010 | seen (500) times | Article Word Count : 853 |

News that the BBC will probably take over the Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race from ITV will be greeted by the wider sports-watching public with a collective yawn

The news that ITV will not continue televising the annual clash between Oxford and Cambridge beyond next year is likely to be greeted by the wider sport-watching public with something close to a collective yawn and a splash of mild irritation. Speculation that the BBC is expected to resume broadcasting an event it relinquished in 2004 is unlikely to raise the pulse rate any further.
And why should it? Taken purely as a sporting event it's not immediately clear why the BBC would have any interest in broadcasting the race. The perception that the crews themselves are a bunch of itinerant third-raters may be out of date; but this is still not a spectacle that demands, on its merits, to be broadcast live on terrestrial TV.
Beyond that it's not as though anyone – outside of a minority of hardcore rowing ultras – actually cares who wins the Boat Race. There is no galvanising sense of tribal rivalry here. It's one for the neutrals, because everybody's a neutral here, including most people who actually went to Oxford or Cambridge.
Taking it a step further, this isn't even a meaningful student event. These aren't starry-eyed second-year history students taking part in a national televised school sports day, an FA Cup third round for undergraduates. The people in those boats are largely ringers and uber-jocks, Canadians, Americans and Germans recruited by the colleges solely to get a body in the boat at Putney.
There's not even much of a case for the wider beneficial effects of promoting rowing as an activity. This is by necessity a restricted and elitist sport. It's equipment-heavy. You need access to a river. You need a boat. A middling set of oars costs £1,000. The children of Hackney and Moss Side may well feel inspired by the sight of the dark blues furiously upping their stroke rate as they approach Chiswick, but there's not much they're going to be able to do about it. Rowing is an activity that will remain out of their reach. Even among Oxbridge students it's considered a specialised, public school-dominated pursuit. Rowing is open to all. But generally you've got to be a rowing kind of person to do it.
The Boat Race, then, is a relic. And not even a very interesting or intrinsically valuable relic. It's infected with the lingering toxins of something feudal, moth-eaten and class-based. Never mind sticking it on telly on a Saturday afternoon and getting Barry Davies to describe it in his "interested" voice. Perhaps we should be hoisting the Boat Race up against the wall and nicking its Rolex watches, lifting its goat-skin loafers, ridiculing its waxed green Barbour windcheater.
This is one way of looking at it. And put like this it sounds like the Boat Race would represent an almost wilfully wrong-headed aquisition by the BBC.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth: the most interesting thing about the Boat Race is that loads of people watch it. Last year's TV audience peaked at 7.6m, a 76% increase on 2006. In 2004, the last time the BBC had the race, its audience peaked at 7.95m. These figures are comparable to or even better than those for some of the big games at Euro 2008. It's more than the Tour De France gets. And it's on a par with the final day of the Ryder Cup. The Boat Race is hip. The people like it or not, demand it.
But which people? The suggestion is that this is a sporting event for non-sports fans. The TV figures are pimped up by the attentions of the Henman-at-Wimbledon mob, the part-timers in search of a little pageantry, a nice view of Hammersmith Bridge and a cup of tea in front of something comforting. Because the Boat Race is essentially the period-costume Dickens adaptation of the sports world, the sporting Midsomer Murders, a water-borne Lord Mayor's Show. As such its destiny is to polarise; and to irritate those outside of its rather uniform demographic.
This irritation is something more than just class chippiness. The only sporting argument in favour of putting our common resources into screening the Boat Race is that this is an amateur event, an entirely praiseworthy pursuit of not-for-profit excellence; and as such a welcome counterpoint to the greed and monomania of the yearly diet of professional sport. But this, again, is undermined by the exclusivity of rowing itself. Boat clubs may be, on the face of it, open to all. But let's face it: they're not really, are they?
Still, viewing figures are all and if the BBC's potential 7m want it, who's to say the Boat Race shouldn't be dished up for them, complete with lovely helicopter shots of the River Thames and Clare Balding in a hat? But perhaps the cost of covering it should be coming out of the BBC drama budget, or light entertainment, or comforting Sunday-night drama kitty. And never mind Davies and Balding. Let's get Dimbleby involved, or Alan Partridge. Just as long as we don't pretend it's about sport or at least about sport for all.

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<h1>The BBC should think twice before buying back the Boat Race</h1> Author: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/profile_zinsser.aspx'>zinsser</a> The news that ITV will not continue televising the annual clash between Oxford and Cambridge beyond next year is likely to be greeted by the wider sport-watching public with something close to a collective yawn and a splash of mild irritation. Speculation that the BBC is expected to resume broadcasting an event it relinquished in 2004 is unlikely to raise the pulse rate any further.
And why should it? Taken purely as a sporting event it's not immediately clear why the BBC would have any interest in broadcasting the race. The perception that the crews themselves are a bunch of itinerant third-raters may be out of date; but this is still not a spectacle that demands, on its merits, to be broadcast live on terrestrial TV.
Beyond that it's not as though anyone – outside of a minority of hardcore rowing ultras – actually cares who wins the Boat Race. There is no galvanising sense of tribal rivalry here. It's one for the neutrals, because everybody's a neutral here, including most people who actually went to Oxford or Cambridge.
Taking it a step further, this isn't even a meaningful student event. These aren't starry-eyed second-year history students taking part in a national televised school sports day, an FA Cup third round for undergraduates. The people in those boats are largely ringers and uber-jocks, Canadians, Americans and Germans recruited by the colleges solely to get a body in the boat at Putney.
There's not even much of a case for the wider beneficial effects of promoting rowing as an activity. This is by necessity a restricted and elitist sport. It's equipment-heavy. You need access to a river. You need a boat. A middling set of oars costs £1,000. The children of Hackney and Moss Side may well feel inspired by the sight of the dark blues furiously upping their stroke rate as they approach Chiswick, but there's not much they're going to be able to do about it. Rowing is an activity that will remain out of their reach. Even among Oxbridge students it's considered a specialised, public school-dominated pursuit. Rowing is open to all. But generally you've got to be a rowing kind of person to do it.
The Boat Race, then, is a relic. And not even a very interesting or intrinsically valuable relic. It's infected with the lingering toxins of something feudal, moth-eaten and class-based. Never mind sticking it on telly on a Saturday afternoon and getting Barry Davies to describe it in his "interested" voice. Perhaps we should be hoisting the Boat Race up against the wall and nicking its Rolex watches, lifting its goat-skin loafers, ridiculing its waxed green Barbour windcheater.
This is one way of looking at it. And put like this it sounds like the Boat Race would represent an almost wilfully wrong-headed aquisition by the BBC.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth: the most interesting thing about the Boat Race is that loads of people watch it. Last year's TV audience peaked at 7.6m, a 76% increase on 2006. In 2004, the last time the BBC had the race, its audience peaked at 7.95m. These figures are comparable to or even better than those for some of the big games at Euro 2008. It's more than the Tour De France gets. And it's on a par with the final day of the Ryder Cup. The Boat Race is hip. The people like it or not, demand it.
But which people? The suggestion is that this is a sporting event for non-sports fans. The TV figures are pimped up by the attentions of the Henman-at-Wimbledon mob, the part-timers in search of a little pageantry, a nice view of Hammersmith Bridge and a cup of tea in front of something comforting. Because the Boat Race is essentially the period-costume Dickens adaptation of the sports world, the sporting Midsomer Murders, a water-borne Lord Mayor's Show. As such its destiny is to polarise; and to irritate those outside of its rather uniform demographic.
This irritation is something more than just class chippiness. The only sporting argument in favour of putting our common resources into screening the Boat Race is that this is an amateur event, an entirely praiseworthy pursuit of not-for-profit excellence; and as such a welcome counterpoint to the greed and monomania of the yearly diet of professional sport. But this, again, is undermined by the exclusivity of rowing itself. Boat clubs may be, on the face of it, open to all. But let's face it: they're not really, are they?
Still, viewing figures are all and if the BBC's potential 7m want it, who's to say the Boat Race shouldn't be dished up for them, complete with lovely helicopter shots of the River Thames and Clare Balding in a hat? But perhaps the cost of covering it should be coming out of the BBC drama budget, or light entertainment, or comforting Sunday-night drama kitty. And never mind Davies and Balding. Let's get Dimbleby involved, or Alan Partridge. Just as long as we don't pretend it's about sport or at least about sport for all.
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