According to reports, coverage of the action sports franchise the X Games on 'Grandstand', the BBC's traditional Saturday afternoon sports show, produced the second lowest rating the programme has ever attracted with an average of just 881,000 viewers tuning in at the weekend.
The combination of sports such as in-line skating and mountain biking failed to bring in the viewers and analysts suggest the BBC's lack of mainstream sports is prompting a severe ratings decline.
It is thought that the only Grandstand programme to record a lower audience than last Saturday was when rival free-to-air network ITV screened the FA Cup Final last year against the BBC's flagship show, leading to the latter registering an average audience of just 700,000 viewers.
The BBC's experiment to bring action sports into the mainstream in its flagship 'Grandstand' programme appears to have backfired.
