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Has The BBC Really Cancelled Doctor Who?
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Sports Rights as a Burden and the Future of Live Broadcasting
At 16:50 · chapter starts 16:00
Richard notes that World Cup games are still pulling 3.5 to 4.5 million viewers on terrestrial TV — and the Scotland match got 1.7 million at 2 AM, which is remarkable by any TV measure. But Marina pushes the more provocative thesis: the rights to live sport are almost becoming a burden. US broadcasters like CBS spend insane sums to carry the World Cup through their 'pipes', and the cost barely pays for itself. Meanwhile, a bunch of people in a New York loft with cameras can generate more than 3 million views with zero rights. Marina and Richard agree: the noise around sport is becoming more lucrative than the sport itself, and the future of live rights is genuinely uncertain.
The Scotland World Cup match drew 1.7 million viewers at 2 AM UK time — a remarkable overnight audience given the extreme time zone challenge.
The BBC is broadcasting the 2026 World Cup from Salford, not America, and the Telegraph called it the 'work from home World Cup'. Marina Hyde and Richard Osman are unequivocal: the cost saving is justified, the quality is identical, and the critics are hypocrites who would have attacked the spend if the BBC had gone stateside.
