As a keen golfer, I'm knocked for six today. Not just the vote of first-person babies, but regarding the BBC... again.

I say, "again", because I love their Sports franchise. Today they suffer a setback as coorporation loses all live coverage of The Open Championship.

That means none of us will be able to watch Rory McIlroy make history on the big screen live any time soon. The Open of 2016 will be the last live one on the Beeb, and we'll have to settle with a rather cheap, lazy highlights time slot from 8 to 10 in the evening from 2017 onwards.

It's a real shame. Golf is everyone's game, really. I always struggled with outdoor activities as a rather bizzare, nonsensical schoolboy back then, but golf has really helped me. But don't expect me on the tour any time soon!

Back in the 80s and 90s, it was boasting on the Beeb and inspired generations. The number of young golfers is, no doubt, on the down. Tennis down by 50,000 since Henman's exit. Cricket a flop. English footballers in the Premier League down...

The loss of sport on the BBC in recent years is awful. It certainly changes the way I see sport now. It's not inspiring any more. It's not just affecting audience figures, it's affecting the sport all together. It's all about money.

Gutted mate I'm a massive golf fan and player the whole television world is all about money now! Sky started it BT sport hit them hard and now overs this is the reason all the pundits are leaving big buck deals so us fans either support the new system or not watch. F1 etc is all the same! I do think I might need 4 televisions in the house etc

4 TVs, lol! Good luck, m8!

lol we have 4 in our house Only ones connected to Sky, others are freeview

I have sky and bbc and I always watched the sky coverage over the bbc coverage. Poor coverage quality was cited as one of the reasons why sky were awarded the franchise and I completely agree. The bbc coverage was stacked full of interviews with British players who finished early in the day (because they were so far off the lead) and reliving British players' rounds instead of watching the non-British leaders. The analysis was less detailed and the so called experts were people who had played in one open championship back in 1978 and missed the cut. Compare this to serious players like Monty on sky and probably the best coach in the world Butch Harmon, as well as visits from the likes of Jack! Good riddance I say!

I disagree with that above as mostly the time spent interviewing players on the BBC is filled with flaming adverts every 15 minutes on the Sky coverage.Also the pundits are actually quite interesting on BBC ..its about personality and knowledge not previous professional records.And who presents most Sky coverage of Golf..oh a couple of players who once won the Portuguese open in 1987 (Robert Lee) and say Richard Boxall (oooh Italian Open winner 1990..I think me winning the Annual team Charity Stableford at one of my Clubs in 2006 drew a bigger crowd...).


Monty was a terrific player...but a boring pundit..although Butch Harmon is excellent if annoying as he insists on trying to look at camera American style all the flipping time (with his wonky eye)
And these days most of the British players you talk about are actually in the top 50...(.ahem Ryder Cup).....and I for one am interested in the Brits and Europeans

I am afraid it is about money, money, money because if I could watch live footie, golf , Formula 1 ,rugby etc on the BBC or ITV I would stop paying the subscriptions and dump Sky...the money I'd save I could spend on 1 or 2 DVD's thus not missing Sky movies as well.
Everything else I can get on my PC..having just watched the latest "Walking Dead"
Sky know this hence megabucks to monopolise Sport coverage
It is the way of the world..

Edited at 10:38 Tue 10/02/15 (GMT)

Thank god for highlights and MOTD etc as I work 5 days a week including at least one weekend day..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00NTXYWIQ/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1423565411&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&keywords=skybox+f5s&dpPl=1&dpID=41%2BXhy1cwTL&ref=plSrch

Get one of them m8, it's got everything sky has got plus more and the picture quality is no different, It's also got setanta sports which shows a 3pm game every sat

I must admit, there are a lot more important things than television at the moment.

Our brains are being totally rewired with modern technology, especially social media. It's dead easy to follow news and live updates, so long as you have a device on you. It's much cheaper and quicker in a way. We didn't have any of this that way back then.

It's still a shame all in all though. It's much better following televised action on the big telly than on a puny, fuzzy little screen with buffering and a choppy-ish frame rate (though that may improve in years to come). Sport is about inspiring generations, but that's one of millions of aspects of sport. It's certainly nothing like the occasional Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, etc. Staying up-to-date with live TV is great, but it's almost pointless chucking money down the drain for such a thing, In almost all aspects, TV viewing figures are plummeting, with over somewhat 350 channels now compared to 4 in the early 80s.

I'm not a fond of king-sized communities, businesses, franchises, etc. at all, especially the Premier League. That £5.1 billion TV deal is beyond me. I have BT Sport with Virgin's XL package, but I refuse to pay for Sky. I despise it. All they do is get the whole world into the habit of sitting there making money and slobbering over it. The Premier League is becoming an inexplicable world domination crushing. It has done the public no favours whatsoever. Sky Sports and the PL should be abolished for good.

Personally I don't care about the nationality of the players. I like to see good sport and just because the player isn't from my country that doesn't make them a worse player. Some of the most exciting players - Watson, Day, Spieth, Matsuyama aren't from Europe but I want to see them! Watching the standard PGA events is the best as you get the Golf Channel coverage (sometimes shared I know) who show the leading players regardless of their country. And they very rarely, if ever, show highlights of someone's round when there are other people playing. And yes I watch pretty much every event on the PGA tour I can, not just the majors/WGC events. All coverage is improved by having David Feherty on! Just wish he would do the majors as well .

Don't see what the issue is, the BBC coverage of everything has been dire for years now. Can't remember the last time I chose to watch the BBC coverage over the sky/bt coverage.

The only reason I have ever tuned into the BBC for golf coverage over the last few years is for Ken Brown....

Can't wait for the reduction in licence fees now!!!!

Everyone complaining about the cost of things consider this.....

You pay £145 for a ridiculous licence fee that purely caters for BBC. £12.10 a month. This gets you crappy re-runs of 1980 sitcoms, god awful soaps that I'd rather watch paint dry than sit through. If you're lucky you'll get the odd FA Cup third round match and the odd Final with coverage with the production value of a year 6 drama project. The only decent thing left is Gary Lineker and MOTD.

You can get the sports package from Sky for £36.80 which includes ~280 channels and broadband. That also includes all the Sky Sports channels (including HD) and both BT channels. So you pretty much get access to every televised sport you want. Bespoke channels for golf, F1, Football. They have broadcasting time for pretty much anything you could want to watch.

I know which one I'd rather pay for!

The BBC is indeed pretty much a flop now, and so are Channel 4 and 5, ITV okay. No wonder they're axing BBC 3. Their financial management is poor and jeopardizing the corporation. TV license funding is pathetic. The last thing I want to see leave the Beeb is F1. Their coverage is very good, I think. The pundits there have great personality, especially Eddie Jordan, who really gets Bernie Ecclestone thinking hard in interviews. Far better than Sky Sports F1 at any rate (fed up or Martin Brundle). I once watched a race live on Sky and the commentators spent most of the race having a cup of tea. Their pundits are drab. BBC can make a boring race exciting. Saying Gary Lineker and MOTD is the only good thing left on the BBC, though, is ridiculous IMO.

TV just isn't the same any more. At least they brought back Open All Hours with David Jason.

Yeah sad about BBC Three as i love Family Guy, guess i will have to buy the box set now unless its free online, I know they have BBCiPlayer but never seen a single Family Guy episode on there

Yeah, Family Guy cannot be shown online for legal reasons, so unless that moves to a different channel or a new agreement is made it won't be shown in the UK any more.

I think BBC commentary across all sports is generally good, but particularly the golf..Peter, Ken , Andrew are terrific. The camera crew are also first-class. This really will be a shame.