BBC says sorry for 12 hours of continuous sport... but watch out for a repeat performance next weekend

The BBC has apologised for subjecting viewers to almost 12 hours of continuous sport during its sports marathon last Saturday, during which it screened the England v. France Six Nations.

However the BBC risks another viewer backlash the weekend after next as it will again show all three Six Nations championship matches live and at least two FA Cup quarter-final matches.

Saturday, March 8 is a particularly full day, with Ireland playing Wales and England taking on Scotland in the rugby and Barnsley v Chelsea screened at 5.15pm in the FA Cup. Plus there will be the usual diet of Football Focus, Match Of The Day, and the live round-up of scores from the rest of the football world.

The BBC gave its half-hearted apology on its website today: "We received complaints from some viewers that the BBC1 schedule on February 23 contained too much sport.

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"We are sorry that some viewers felt the BBC1 schedule contained too much sport.

"Competition for sports rights has intensified enormously in recent years and since the Six Nations tournament came back to the BBC, there has been a picture of growth in audiences watching our coverage of the sport."

"We realise that not everyone enjoys watching sport but there is undeniably a large section of our audience who do and as a public service broadcaster, we are obligated to cater for them as and when we can.

"The audience ratings alone justified our decision to show the three matches."

On Saturday, BBC1's sports-dominated schedule began at 12.10pm with Football Focus and finished with Match of the Day at 11.40pm that evening.

For those suffering from sports fatigue the only non-sports programme that was broadcast, apart from news bulletins, was an edition of clips show Out-Take TV devoted to Anne Robinson's The Weakest Link.