On the face of it, Evan Davis’s Newsnight debut, the final episode of Grange Hill and the Supreme Court don’t have much in common. However – despite varying levels of watchability – each one managed to pull in 500,000 viewers.

According to its annual report, the Supreme Court attracted a whopping 288,256 live stream views and 238,558 on demand views last financial year, while judgment hand-downs were watched 77,419 times on YouTube. In much the same way as beleaguered celebrities, the court also took to social media during the pandemic, boosting its Instagram following by 44% to 13,000 (compared with the Ministry of Justice’s paltry 10,100) and making a LinkedIn profile with 3,200 followers to date.

The Supreme Court also upgraded its in-court cameras and souped-up its audio equipment to improve the quality of its video footage, spending over £400,000 on IT and broadcasting in the past 12 months. If its figures are anything to go by, it’s money well spent. After all, being neither a football fanatic nor a tennis nut, Obiter needs some good telly to watch in the evenings.

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