SPOTY only serves to highlight the death of sports coverage on the BBC

I’d record it – on a VHS tape, of course – so I could watch the best bits back.

Now, though, there barely are any best bits.

So much of SPOTY’s fall from grace is as a result of the BBC haemorrhaging the rights for sporting events.

At SPOTY’S best, it was a compelling and, most importantly, complete review of the sporting year.

Never were there gaping holes in the programme because the BBC didn’t have the rights to show the action.

In recent years, however, it’s like someone has taken a sledgehammer to the show such are the gaps in the look-back on the year , and it’s hard to see how the 2023 edition, which airs on Tuesday, will be any different.

That the show, which was once one of the jewels in the BBC’s crown, is taking place midweek says it all.

But the loss of broadcast rights for the BBC has far wider ramifications than merely turning SPOTY into a dirge.

Sport, and in turn society as a whole, suffers greatly from so many sports, and so many sporting occasions, not being available to watch on free-to-air television.

It’s no coincidence that athletes like Seb Coe, Steve Cram and Steve Ovett were, in their day, household names.

Steve Lovett, Stave Cram and Set Coe were household names in the 1980s

Their almost blanket name-recognition across the UK came as a direct result of them racing on free-to-air channels multiple times a season, year after year.

Nobody had to pay considerable sums of money to access a particular sports package, then find the correct channel in a sea of options.

No, back when athletes like Coe, Cram and Ovett were as widely-recognised as any footballer, you flicked on BBC1 and there they were.

Of course, things have changed and it would be folly to suggest that it’s all been for the worse.

Many sports, and particularly football, have thrived as a result of the astronomical sums of money flooding in from broadcast rights.

But it’s hard to believe that the increased coverage in return for losing a few pounds in rights wouldn’t benefit greatly many sports in this country.

Individuals like Laura Muir, Eilish McColgan, Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman are known within the Scottish sporting bubble but the fact that athletics is now so rarely on the mainstream BBC channels means they’re far less recognisable names than they would have been had they achieved similar levels of success back when athletics was a regular feature on the BBC.

Highlighting this point perfectly is the fact that of everything McColgan has achieved in recent seasons, and the list is considerable, by far her most widely-recognised run was her gold medal-winning performance in the 10,000m at the Commonwealth Games last summer, an event that was shown live on the BBC’s main channels.

It’s not only athletics that’s been badly hit by the stampede away from the BBC.

Of course, regular, high-level live football is the most obvious absence, with the Premier League, Champions League and Europa League, as well as most of the international games now, on channels requiring a subscription.

But other sports, which previously had been departing the BBC in dribs and drabs, are now fleeing at an alarming rate.

Just last month, it was reported that the BBC is in danger of losing the rights to show rugby’s 6 Nations tournament.

This would be yet another bitter blow for the corporation which has, in recent year, lost a list as lengthy as my arm of major sporting events including F1, The Open golf, the Ryder Cup, The Grand National, the Cricket World Cup plus many, many more.

What remain safe on the BBC, for now, are the World Cup, Wimbledon and the Olympics. They are on what’s called a “core list” meaning they cannot go to a subscription broadcaster.

But surely no one believes that these events aren’t also in danger in the longer-term? 

Already the Olympics is edging closer to subscription channels.

For the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, host broadcaster, Discovery, held most of the UK television rights meaning the BBC was able to show only select snatches of the action.

Contrast this to London 2012 when literally dozens of BBC channels were set up to ensure almost every minute of Olympic action could be watched live, for free.

All three of the Olympics, World Cup and Wimbledon would generate eye-watering sums of money for any broadcaster who was willing to stump up for them.

But in the case of the Olympics particularly, it seems an almighty missed trick for the BBC to be ploughing millions of pounds into their Olympic coverage only to entirely neglect these sports in the four years until the next Olympic Games.

For kids in particular, the effect of watching sport regularly on television cannot be underestimated. 

Without exception, every athlete I interview lights up at the suggestion that their achievements may inspire a kid to take an interest in their sport, particularly when it’s a minority sport.

And also without exception, every elite athlete will recall sitting at home when they were a child, watching the best athletes in the world at the Olympics or World Championships or wherever they may have been excelling.

As sport drains away from the BBC, so do the eyes of countless kids who, after a brief glimpse of a sport on television, may be inspired to try it for themselves.

And as much as the impact of the BBC’s loss of sports coverage makes SPOTY a dreadful watch, the wider impact is far more concerning.