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Janet · 29-09-2013, 06:51 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In article ,
says...

On 2013-09-29 15:56:31 +0100, Janet said:

In article ,
says...

On 2013-09-29 13:41:01 +0100, Jake said:

On Sun, 29 Sep 2013 12:16:20 +0100, Sacha

According to BARB, the 13/9 programme drew 2.03m. I think PS means
that they fluctuate week by week and have been as low as 1.5m. IIRC,
the fluctuation is between 2.5 and 1.5m.

Whilst it's a fact that viewing figures have reduced since the death
of Geoff Hamilton, I doubt that presenter/format changes alone have
caused the reduction from the 4.5m figure. TV delivery has changed
substantially in the intervening period and viewing habits have
changed substantially as a result.

Exactly.

The group has discussed the whys and why nots of watching GW many
times. Whilst I fall into the nots group, I worry that PS's repeated
criticisms will lead not to improvement but to its demise; after all
programmes with figures higher than GW have been cancelled before now.

I think what he's hoping to get is what he considers to be better
presentation. Just recently in the trade press, there was a new
brouhaha about MD not having visited a garden centre in 11 years, which
is hardly helpful to the industry which, at least partially, causes him
to be employed.

Nonsense. He is employed by the BBC as a TV presenter; not, to tout
for business for garden centres and horticultural trades. The BBC is not
a commercial broadcaster, does not sell advertising time, so there is NO
sense in which any BBC presenter owes their employment to the
horticultural trade.

Without the horticultural trade, the plants they breed, the plants they
sell and the plants they propagate, there would be no gardeners, no GW
and no job for gardening presenters.

The complaint was, he said he hadn't been to a garden centre for 11
years; GC's are only one part of the horticultural trade.
He did not say, he has not been to a nursery or bought stock from a
grower/ producer. In the past several weeks, you have mentioned buying
irises and daylilies online from nurseries and growers.You could not
have bought those selections of plants from a gardencentre,
and you are still, supporting horticultural trades.

What makes you think, other gardeners, especially those with a large
garden or keen interest, including MD, don't do the same thing, to get
the variety they want, in the quantity they want?

There would be no garden centres without growers/producers to supply
them. But there have been gardens and gardeners, for centuries, long
before commercial "horticultural trades "started selling plants. With no
gardencentres, we would buy online and by post, and of course propagate
share and swap plants among themselves, just as gardeners did long
before garden centres ever existed.

As for your imagined threat to TV garden programs, I might point out,
that television also pre-dates garden centres, and the demand for TV
programming is not dictated solely by shopping opportunities. Historical
programs seem pretty popular despite the small number of viewers who buy
a Spitfire or a horsedrawn carriage.

Janet.