Oh, I say! BBC in gender bias row at Wimbledon

THE BBC has been urged to give a ‘higher profile’ to women’s tennis during Wimbledon this year following a complaint about gender bias in match coverage.

An angry viewer who monitored the first week of the tournament last year discovered that on one day the BBC devoted 93 per cent of its airtime to the men’s tournament.

The complainant also highlighted that only 48 per cent of Serena Williams’s first two matches were televised even though she was competing for a historic 21st singles grand slam – which she went on to win.

Other findings included that during the first six days of the Championships more than 75 per cent of coverage was of men’s matches.

The matter was investigated by the BBC Trust, the Corporation’s governing body. The complaint was dismissed on the grounds BBC schedulers had the right to pick what they thought were the best matches to cover.

But the Trust said the disparities were ‘surprising’ and called for ‘a higher profile for women’s matches’. It added: ‘Viewers had every right to expect the BBC would start from the basis of equality between players.’

The complainant monitored at 15-minute intervals the matches shown on BBC1, BBC2 and the BBC’s red button service across the first week of last year’s tournament.

All but one of the men’s top 16 seeds were featured one or more times, but only seven of the women’s top seeds were shown.

BBC executives said they would take the figures into account when planning coverage of this year’s tournament, which begins on Monday, June 27.