The BBC Trust is calling on the network's programmers to rectify what it describes as a "startling disparity" in its coverage of men's and women's matches during Wimbledon last year, John Plunkett of The Guardian reports.
A viewer complained to the network on the basis of a personal investigation, which found that 76 percent of the BBC's coverage in the first week of the tournament focused on men's matches, with that figure rising as high as 93 percent.
The complainant monitored all the matches shown on BBC1, BBC2, and BBC Red Button at 15-minute intervals throughout the first week of last year's Wimbledon.
The trust acknowledged that 70 percent of the BBC's air-time was devoted to men's matches, but also said in a judgment published Thursday that there was "no evidence of a significant discrepancy that suggested bias against the women's game" at the network, Plunkett reports.
The one factor that would lilkely skew the broadcast data is the fact that men play best-of-five matches at majors, while women play best-of-three. In other words, there would necessarily be a greater abundance of men's tennis to broadcast.
Still, the 70-30 split seems disproportionate, even to the BBC trustees. Despite their finding that no significant gender bias was at play, the trustees "found this disparity surprising," and "encourage(d) BBC Sport to maintain momentum in highlighting the importance of women's sport - in this case tennis."
BBC executives said they would take those discrepant figures into account when planning for its coverage of this year's tournament, Plunkett reports. Wimbledon's main draw begins on June 27.
