BBC needs to stop doing one major thing after Wimbledon or it will lose viewers

OPINION

Wimbeldon is over for another year and normality is restored to the TV schedules - or so you would think. But waiting in the wings there is some sporting event or other just waiting to ensure my regular favourite shows are shunted around the schedule. Sport is big business - I get that. But it is the loyal viewers of soaps such as EastEnders and the diehard fans of weekend cookery shows and daytime TV who keep channels ticking over all year round and they are not happy when you mess with their routine.

A quick glance at social media shows numerous angry viewers wondering why their favourite shows have been cancelled or rescheduled in recent weeks. For some reason BBC's long running medical drama Casualty fares very badly in this regard - seemingly a lot of sports events happen on a Saturday when they are scheduled. But it is not alone. In the past few weeks TV schedules, mainly the BBCs, have been hugely disrupted to accommodate sports. And it is infuriating.

Rugby, football and - for one fortnight a year - tennis, are all deemed to take precedence over the regular scheduled programming.

I am fully aware sporting events draw huge viewerships but surely they could run on one of the other BBC channels rather than One. This also applies to ITV, although they are not as guilty of it.

While there may indeed be huge excitement around things like The Olympics even the most hardened TV exec would have to admit not all the sports are a TV draw.

Yet every four years we are bombarded with hours of competition from the event - which can often run into ridiculous hours depending on the host country. This is also true of the World Cup which seems to merit almost 24/7 coverage when it is on at the expense of everything else on the box.

While a fortnight of Wimbledon might not sound like a lot all those fortnights add up to a severely disrupted schedule. It's not that I can't find something else to occupy my time (and there is always Netflix) but it is extremely unfair to expect viewers to invest their time in a show and then whip the rug out from under them.

Also, there are some people form whom these hows are their solace for whatever reason. They may be elderly and living alone or they may have some issues which watching their favourite shows helps with. Either way, schedule disruption is not good for them.

I'm not saying don't show sports. Far from it. But I do think the scheduling could be better managed to accommodate loyal viewers who stick with the channel all year and not just during "event TV".

In an era where figures are declining for live TV viewership surely the last thing the BBC, and other broadcasters want, is to alienate the people who actually tune in regularly.