2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

Special 1 Tv is not a patch on Apres Match which is on rte during the world cup...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KKbSfu5CxU&feature=related



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P7CgKvhpoo&feature=related

ITV announced details of their coverage today :

THE FIFA 2010 WORLD CUP ON ITV

ITV to broadcast 32 live games through tournament including England’s two opening games in peak time.

Adrian Chiles leads an ITV World Cup team including Marcel Desailly, Patrick Viera, Edgar Davids, Kevin Keegan, Gareth Southgate, Lucas Radebe, Andy Townsend, Robbie Earle, Jim Beglin and Craig Burley.

ITV.com launches a new dual screen experience for the World Cup – ITV Live – combining action replays, real-time statistics, voting tools social networking.

James Corden’s World Cup Live will follow every ITV1 evening match programme with alternative World Cup insight reaction and insight. After every ITV1 evening match, James will be joined by celebrity guests, a World Cup legend, a studio full of fans, and his very own human world cup wall chart. The show will also feature exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in English football, as well as regular updates of what's really going on in the England camp.

A new title sequence will feature song When You Come Back by South African musician Vusi Mahlasela, while upgraded football replay technology will make it easier for the experts to clear up controversial decisions.

The full press pack is here : http://www.itv.com/documents/doc/World%20Cup%20Press%20Pack%20FINAL.doc

And RTÉ's coverage was announced today...by none other than Ryle Nugent, who aside from being the familiar voice of RTÉ rugby is also their Deputy Head of Sport (and in the absence of a Head of Sport at present thus top dog in the sports department!). He isn't going to South Africa (well not this year anyway, wait till Ireland's next rugby tour) but the usual suspects are being joined by Ossie Ardiles, Didi Harmann, Liam Brady, and Kevin Kilbane.

Other than that, coverage is pretty much as predicted:

Anchors: Bill O'Herlihy, Peter Collins, Daragh Molony, Con Murphy
Panelists: John Giles, Eamon Dunphy, Graeme Souness, Ronnie Whelan, Richie Sadlier, Liam Brady and Denis Irwin, Ossie Ardiles, Didi Harmann, Liam Brady, and Kevin Kilbane.
Commentators: George Hamilton, Gabriel Egan, Adrian Eames, Jimmy Magee (at 75!)
Analysts: Trevor Steven, Stephen Alkin, Damian Richardson, Matt Holland

56 of the 64 games will be live on RTÉ Two with the remaining 8 games live on RTÉ Online (RTÉ having yet to figure out what a red button is, nearly 10 years since they started broadcasting in digital). All the games on TV will also be simulcast on RTÉ Online (geoblocked to ROI) and on the RTÉ Player.

And yes, Apres Match is also back.

http://www.rte.ie/about/pressreleases/2010/0601/sportworldcup01062010.html

RTÉ Radio is doing a "World Cup Knockout" where each presenter is supporting a particular country.

http://www.rte.ie/about/pressreleases/2010/0602/radio1worldcup.html

Getting rather sick now of ITV advertising it virtually every ad break.

With a drama stripped across prime time next week and then the World Cup dominating after that, they've probably got very little left to advertise, unless they start airing promos for Countrywise!

I notice the timeslot for evening kick off matches is 7-10pm on BBC One and 7-9.30pm on ITV1, with the commercial broadcaster switching to the James Corden show at 9.30pm.

I guess this is a tactic as the audience trails off massively after the match, dragging the ratings down for the entire slot. With matches kicking off at 7.30pm that leaves very little time for post match analysis on ITV by the time you've factored in ad breaks.

Only the first half hour of the James Corden show is on ITV1, it continues for a further half an hour on ITV4.

It seems a bit stupid the BBC continuing through to 10pm and then having a highlights programme on BBC2 at 10pm anyway - I really can't see them not airing highlights of other games in that half hour from 9.30pm.

I posted this in the ITV thread but it's worthy of a mention here too I think.

ITV1 and ITV2 to be streamed live via a free iPhone web app in time for the World Cup...

Digital Spy

For those who are interested in such things, the SRO Audiences website lists some dates for the James Corden show at The London Studios, with others at TV Centre. I suspect it'll be a bit of a minimalist set, to save them having to cart it across town between matches...

So they ditched the idea of doing it live from a pub then.

The BBC erect a special lift to get access to their hospital rooftop studio :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284273/BBC-spends-thousands-lift-whisk-World-Cup-presenters-flights-studio-hospital-rooftop.html

That does seem a little unnecessary - but what do I know?