The Gardeners' World Blog

No broadcaster these days can have a monopoly of sports rights. The UK market is a healthily competitive one - and there are plenty of events covered well by Sky, ITV and Setanta. This autumn ITV have the Rugby World Cup and Formula One, which are covered by us on radio and online. Next year, the BBC will have the Olympics and Euro 2008 in addition to our regular schedule so the cycle of even years, when we have our biggest TV events, and odd years, when we don't, will continue.

We recognised some time ago that this can give the effect of feast or famine. Next week we have England at Wembley on BBC ONE with World Matchplay Golf on BBC TWO, followed a few days later by Scotland in Georgia - whereas last week it was, well, Pot Black. Nothing wrong with that, and more than a million people watched it on Saturday afternoon, but sports fans expect more these days - so that's what we're trying to deliver.