English Chess Forum

I thought I read somewhere that the Master Game was returning and it would be broadcast on BBC4. Has any one heard any more about this or has it all fallen through? Who could pull some strings to get our noble game back back on tv?

Frank, the current prospects of getting a Master Game type of programme back on TV are discussed on pages 5 and 6 of the "at the mercy of the arbiter" thread. (There were also similar discussions a year or two ago.) Sadly, there seems no immediate prospect of such a programme returning.

Thanks Mike, I haven't read that thread yet but I will.

frank sealey wrote:I thought I read somewhere that the Master Game was returning and it would be broadcast on BBC4. Has any one heard any more about this or has it all fallen through? Who could pull some strings to get our noble game back back on tv?

Unfortunately I'd say it's highly unlikley for several reasons.

1) There's no money in the game, by which I mean sponsorship & big stakes internet tourneys as is the case with poker.
2) Commentary is a difficulty. How do you appeal to the casual player whilst not seeming to patronise a strong club player?
3) There will be sod-all avertising for it & no-one will realise it's been on BBC23 for the last 8 weeks with viewing figures of a couple of hundred before being cancelled.
4) A world slump in interest for the game since the early-mid '90's doesn't exactly bode well. The current crop of Super GM's (with a few exceptions like Morozevich) don't exactly thrill in the majority of their games; semi-slav & a draw in 20, anyone?

I'm sure I could think of a few more reasons given a bit more time.

For what it's worth I don't think any of the above is necessarily true: I think it's pretty much a matter of fashion.

May be of interest, Scottish Bridge Union have a series of programmes on Sky beginning this evening. Have a look at: http://www.scottishbridge.co.uk/BridgeOnTV.html

They will almost certainly be paying for the privilege. That's the way the Sky model works for all but the most broadcastable sports (eg football).

Well Steve, the original Master Game (plus the programmes on world ch matches the BBC regularly ran once upon a time) seemed to get round your point #2 pretty well.........

None of the others you list are insuperable either. It is just a question of will IMO.

I agree with much of what Mr Collyer wrote.

Times have moved on - eg people now have dozens of channels on their TV, not three or four, so a chess programme would have to compete against a plethora of other stuff. It's not clear to me that it would be able to draw in the casual viewer.

Having said that I did absolutely love the original series all those years ago !

But shouldn't the "loads of tv channels" argument work the other way, if anything??

Apostles of the brave new world of deregulated telly assured us, after all, that all sorts of weird and wonderful minority interests would be catered for - so why hasn't it happened?

Because of the Sky model (see above) - "weird and wonderful minority interests" have negligible to zero advertising traction, so typically would have to pay to appear on commercial TV - which of course none of them can afford.

Matt Mackenzie wrote:But shouldn't the "loads of tv channels" argument work the other way, if anything??

Well this is a failure to understand that more options (channels in this case) does not necessarily mean more choice.


As a by-the-by the difference between more 'nominal' choice and more 'real' choice is (on the whole) a particularly difficult concept to get across to Americans - except perhaps for The Boss who pointed out many moons ago that there could still be nothing on the tellybox even if you have 57 channels.

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Well this is a failure to understand that more options (channels in this case) does not necessarily mean more choice.
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I understand very well, mate Proof yet again, Jonathan, that sarcasm does not often travel well on teh internetz

And Floyd got it (before Brucey) a full three decades ago - what with "13 channels of sh** on the TV to choose from"

Fair enough.

This whole argument presupposes that chess on TV would be a 'good thing'. I'm actually far from convinced it would be (in reality - assuming it ever happened at all - as opposed to what we might hope we would get)

Hmm, you could be right. I imagine there would be lots of blitz chess ('cos it's exciting, innit?) and other gimmickry