'Too many repeats' story: it's happening again

Having been pipped to the post by the Daily Express with the annual "too many repeats on Christmas TV story", the Daily Mail steps its up to Defcon 1 today with a "too many repeats on TV not just at Christmas but throughout the entire year" tale. "Half of all the programmes broadcast in the UK are either repeats or imports which have been shown elsewhere," it reports. "This means that only about 50% of TV time is taken up with first-run British shows - more than double the proportion of repeats that Italians are shown and significantly more than that of France or Germany". Outrageous! "The findings come just weeks after it was revealed that around 750 hours of repeats will be shown over Christmas on the five main channels." Unrelated thought: how can the Mail have a go at broadcasters for repeats while at the same time shamelessly recycling the same story year after year?