Why Do We All have to Suffer this Exam Results Bollocks?

At that stage in my life I don't recall a single mention on TV or a single column inch in the press about 'O' and 'A' level results.  The only people who even knew the results were out were we ourselves and our folks.  Now we get blanket coverage of it across all TV channels and across multiple pages of all our newspapers for day after day. Hour after hour of tedious footage of young people celebrating or crying about their results, and of even more tedious discussion and analysis.  Why for God's sake? Who gives a shit apart from the people themselves and their parents?