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Features - Meridian TV Biasometer

Meridian TV's Soccer Sunday programme each week contains about ten minutes of highlights from one game chosen from among those played by the clubs covered by the TV region, and then goal action for the rest. In 2001/02, the extent of coverage of Reading on this programme was appalling, which Meridian claimed was down to coincidence, so I decided to monitor what happened in the future.

2003/04

The table is ordered by the position of the clubs in the Football League. The points column shows the order in which the programme showed clubs - six for the first, five for the second, etc. Any club for whom no action was shown scores zero.

Latest update: After programme 29 on 9/5/2004

Teams with no League game the weekend of a programme:
Gillingham - 2
Reading - 2
Bournemouth - 2
Southend United - 2
Swindon Town - 1
Brighton & Hove Albion - 1

Notes:
(a) There was a one-hour programme covering the League Cup first round on 12/8/2003, the date carefully chosen as the Tuesday because Reading were playing on the Wednesday. The programme featured all the other clubs in the Meridian region (with season previews for those clubs in the Premiership) but did not mention Reading once. The main game was Bristol Rovers v Brighton & Hove Albion.
(b) It seems that there is a new trend for 2003/04 where the main game is supplemented by extended highlights from another match. In the first two weeks, the teams with extended highlights were Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth. This only happens when the pictures are provided by someone else; for example, ITV1 regions such as HTV West who have decent football coverage.
(c) There was a one-hour Soccernight programme on 24/9/2003. The main game was (justifiably) Southampton's UEFA Cup tie, but the programme also covered the League Cup second round. Of the Meridian teams playing League Cup ties that night, Reading were shown third out of three.
(d) There was a one-hour Soccernight programme on 28/10/2003 covering the League Cup third round. The main game featured Southampton, and Meridian decided to show the Reading action after Manchester United (but this time before Gillingham).
(e) There was a one-hour Soccernight programme on 3/12/2003 covering the League Cup fourth round. The main game was Reading v Chelsea but edited in a way so as to emphasise our visitors. The studio discussion also ignored Reading - however, let's be fair and point out that they did at least show the Reading match before any of the other games.
(f) The programme on 25/1/2004 also showed action from the game between Farnborough Town and Aldershot.
(g) The programme on 22/2/2004 made all my points for me. There were two Meridian derbies - Gillingham v Reading in Division 1 and Brighton & Hove Albion v Bournemouth in Division 2. Meridian chose to show the Brighton-Bournemouth game as their main match. This wasn't because it was a more exciting game - they had in advance chosen to have their truly awful presenter Andy Steggall and main commentator Ross Dyer at Withdean rather than Priestfield. It wasn't because the Division 2 game was an important promotion battle - the two sides were 8th and 11th before the game. It was because of South Coast bias, pure and simple. And they were quite open about it - Steggall said of the Brighton v Bournemouth game, "This is the big one".
(h) There was a 30-minute Soccernight programme on 2/3/2004. The main game was meant to feature Gillingham but that was called off, so Meridian showed highlights of Norwich City v West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield United v Millwall before condescending to show goal action from Reading's game.
(i) There was a one-hour Soccernight programme on 16/3/2004 with Reading's game away to Cardiff City as the featured match. The programme also included highlights of Gillingham's game plus goal action from the two other clubs in the region who played that night as well as goal action from some other games. If the average Meridian football programme was structured like this edition of Soccernight, then this webpage would not exist. (Note to Meridian employees - I'm not saying that Reading should be the main game every programme; just that overall we should get the coverage fitting our current status of being by far the top Football League team in the region.)
(j) The programme on 18/4/2003 also included goal action from the Easter Monday games.

2002/03

Overall conclusions from the results below

The programme was heavily biased towards Portsmouth. To some extent this was justified as they did win Division 1. The amount of coverage of Reading was far superior to the previous season, but there were still problems with the quality. In the eyes of the production team, we were clearly the second team in each of the games shown when we were playing against south coast clubs.

The extent of coverage of Brighton & Hove Albion in a season when they were relegated was obscene and indicates more clear bias. Bournemouth were also massively over-represented. The three other clubs in the Meridian region - Gillingham, Swindon Town and Southend United - were practically ignored. In particular, Gillingham were a decent Division 1 side who might almost not have existed in the eyes of Meridian. Based on 2002/03, they are the club with most to complain about.

To me it is obvious that Meridian favour the three south coast teams - Portsmouth, Brighton and Bournemouth. The other clubs in the region are deemed there simply to make up the numbers, and the coverage of Reading in 2002/03 was really only because we did so well.

Results

The table is ordered by the position of the clubs in the Football League. The points column shows the order in which the programme showed clubs - seven for the first, six for the second, etc. Any club for whom no action was shown scores zero.

Final update: After programme 19 on 4/5/2003

Teams with no game the weekend of a programme:
Brighton & Hove Albion - 2
Swindon Town - 2
Bournemouth - 2
Southend United - 3
Gillingham - 2
Reading - 2
Portsmouth - 2

Notes:
(a) The first programme in 2002/03 was on 3/11/2002. By this time three of the 12 Division 1 games containing only Meridian teams had already taken place, but none of those three matches were the six involving Reading.
(b) Programme 6 included goal action from a Brighton midweek game, something that no other club has benefited from.
(c) I missed programme 7 on 22/12/2002 due to incompetence!
(d) Programme 8 on 29/12/2002 included goal action from games on 26/12/2002, but they are not included in the averages.
(e) The main game for programme 9 on 12/1/2003 was to be Portsmouth v Sheffield United but the game was called off. Instead Meridian chose to review Portsmouth's season so far, subsequently claiming that it was impossible for them to get sufficient pictures from any other match featuring one of the region's teams - therefore I have chosen to record this as if the game had gone ahead.
(f) On 4/3/2003 (a Tuesday night), there was a half-hour Meridian Match programme. As not all teams in the region had a game, I've not included the programme in the statistics above, but the main game featured Gillingham.
(g) Programme 20 on 11/5/2003 showed highlights from Reading's Division 1 play-off semi-final, but Meridian decided that it was more important to show action from a Division 3 play-off game involving Bournemouth first.

To see the results of games between the four Division 1 team in the Meridian region, go to the local rivals page.

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