On 2013-09-13 18:40:47 +0100, Janet said:

In article ,
says...

Unfortunately, nobody
seems prepared to listen to dissatisfied gardeners and judging from
this group alone, there are quite a few about. I believe overall
viewing figures for GW are between 2 and 2.5 million.

Which is a failry respectable number for a hobby program; sports
programs are watched by under 3 million. It's also quite a respectable
audience compared with the rest of what's on offer

http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/weekly-top-30

(scroll down )

Janet.

I don't think it's intended to be a hobby programme, as such. It's
surely supposed to be teaching people about many aspects of gardening
and growing their own food is just one. Without going into it, I would
think the number of people with gardens or allotments (mainly because
couples get involved) would outweigh the number of people who watch
football, tennis or cricket on tv, except when it comes to e.g.
Wimbledon finals. Those viewing figures don't strike me as particularly
high when you read that even repeats of Doc Martin get 4 million while
the highest number for one episode was over 10 million. I know they're
entirely different types of programme but it gives some indication of
how many people will watch something they enjoy that engages their
interest, even if they've seen it before. I suppose we would need to
know if the Beeb is happy with those figures or whether they'll pull
the plug altogether if they get much lower. And I think it's telling
that over comparatively few years there have been several attempts to
make GW work and pull in more people. Imo, at present the focus is
much too narrow for getting people new to gardening interested in
learning from the programme. That's just my view but I doubt if it's
mine alone.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk