IRB Rugby World Cup: Austrailia 2003 - live on ITV

ITV have acquired the delayed rights to the crucial England v Turkey qualifier on Saturday 11th as well. With the Rugby World Cup, F1 and now the England match looks like the schedule will be packed with sport that weekend.

They can show the match in full after 8pm apparently, but remains to be seen if they will show the whole thing "as live" on prime time on a Saturday.

Well at the moment they've got The Pitts scheduled for 5.30 with the main Saturday night shedule starting at 6.00. The post Millionaire show is still to be announced.

They could start at 5.30 with Celebrities Under Pressure and run everything half an hour earlier than currently billed, with the football coverage starting at 8.55pm. This would run then until about 11.00pm, meaning ITV Nightime would run half an hour later than billed.

Also they could always drop Millionaire, it depends on if its been filmed yet, although Pop Idol results would then be late

No it hasn't . Sat 11th's edition of WWTBAM will be recorded on the evening of Wed 8th.

Looks like ITV will have the option of widescreen broadcasting:

http://www.dba.org.au/uploads/documents/rugby-digital-release-final.pdf

Also, can anyone find any caps of the presentation for this years tournament. I know for last years FIFA World Cup the presentation graphics were uploaded to this forum.

The Saturday 11th October has now changed and is finalised as:

Saturday 11th October

06:00 GMTV
10:15 Rugby World Cup: France v Fiji
12:55 ITV Weekend News; Regional News
13:05 F1: Grand Prix Qualifying
14:20 SM:TV Gold
15:20 CD:UK
16:05 Rugby World Cup: Highlights
17:05 Normal Schedule
21:35 Euro 2002 Qualifying
23:15 ITV Weekend News

So they've decided to fit in some SM:TV Gold

Sunday's schedule is also finalised as:

Sunday 12th October

06:00 F1: Grand Prix Live
08:35 Rugby World Cup: Wales v Canada, Scotland v Japan & England v Georgia
15:35 F1: Grand Prix Replay
17:20 Regional News and Programme
18:05 Normal Schedule

Cue all non sports fans complaining about that one

It's weird having SM:TV Gold in the afternoon, oh well I can see all of it now, I'm never arsed to get up at 9.25am on a Saturday. It's going to be like last year's World Cup all over again, shortened GMTV's, a daytime schedule turned upside down. I know that no Premiership teams are playing on that day, but don't they still show On The Ball on a International Match Day? It's nice to see a decent Saturday afternoon schedule for once, but 7 Hours of Rugby! That's a hell of alot.

What are GMTV showing from 9.25-10.15 on the saturday then? I know they're showing a Yu-Gi-Oh morning on a sunday, but it's not my sort of thing. At least they're showing the football at 9.35pm, if they did show it at prime time, God knows how many complaints there would be.

What is ITV2 doing on this day aswell?

The preview programme last night gave a good indication of the presentation:

The titles obviously feature the World In Union theme and like last years Football World Cup begin with a text style "ITV Sport Presents" rather than an ITV Sport bumper.

The on screen graphics are not brilliant - basically a flat version of the 1999 graphics in white and blue.

PS: As the tournament gets underway this week mods, any chance of making this thread sticky to cover it and any schedule changes.

Well it is the World Cup, and for rugger fans like me, a HELL of a lot more important than the footy one!

Well after watching ITV's preview of the World Cup the other night there's no doubt about it I'll shall be watching S4C's coverage of the Wales matches. ITV yet again seem to forget that that there are other home nations competing in this tournament. Okay (and as a Welshman it pains me to say this, but I am a RUGBY fan) England are looking good and look odds on to lift the trophy and Ireland are probably the best hope of the rest of the UK nations, but thats still no excuse for the coverage Wales (and Scotland) are getting from ITV. The recent promo on ITV 2 ( as mentioned previously) just sums up ITV's general attitude.

With no disrespect to Jim Rosenthal(sp), his previous frontings of World Cup's is not brilliant (any one remember his comments re: the millennium stadium on the opening ceremony of the 99 World Cup )

Although the nations will be opting out of national ITV coverage (certainly in Wales and Ulster Regions, so I presume Scotland as well) there are still ex-pats of those nations living in England (or in Wales' case people living in areas that can't get HTV/S4C) who will have to rely on ITV'S coverage, so please ITV let's see a programme that relects all parts of the UK and not just England.

I know England have a larger population than the rest of the home nations and some will argue therefore England should dominate the programme, but at the moment one feels from ITV's coverage so far
that its a case of England are playing in the World Cup...blah blah blah (then at the very end as a footnote) oh and by the way Wales and Scotland are also taking part

Anyway, roll on Friday and all I have to do is get the workplace tele tuned to S4C and HTV (because at the moment it's Midlands and Granada, despite being in Wales )

So here's the schedule so you can mix and match your rugby viewing...

Friday 10 October:
Live:
Australia v Argentina (and opening ceremony) - 10:10 ITV1 (all regions) and 10:00 S4C.
Highlights:
Australia v Argentina - 19:00 ITV2, 21:00 S4C, 23:00 ITV1

Saturday 11 October:
Live:
New Zealand v Italy - 5:15 ITV2 (also scheduled for S4C at 8:30? - I guess delayed)
Ireland v Romania - 8:00 ITV2, 14:20 UTV (delayed)
France v Fiji - 10:15 ITV1
South Africa v Uruguay - 12:45 ITV2
Highlights:
New Zealand v Italy and Ireland v Romania - 12:25 ITV1
all four games - 16:05 ITV1 (not UTV - included in above programme), 18:00 S4C, 19:05 ITV2

Sunday 12 October
Live:
Wales v Canada - 8:30 S4C, 8:35 ITV1, 14:25 S4C digidol (delayed)
Scotland v Japan - 10:45 ITV1 (seperate commentary on SMG regions and Border Scotland)
England v Georgia - 12:50 ITV1
Highlights:
all three games - 19:00 ITV2, 19:30 S4C, 23:15 ITV1 (not SMG), 0:15 SMG

Tuesday 14 October
Live:
Argentina v Namibia - 10:10 ITV2
Highlights:
Argentina v Namibia - 19:00 ITV2, 23:30 ITV1

Wednesday 15 October
Live:
Fiji v USA - 7:45 ITV2
Italy v Tonga - 10:15 S4C and ITV2
Samoa v Uruguay - 12:45 ITV2
Highlights:
all three games - 19:00 ITV2, 21:00 S4C, 23:25 ITV1

Friday 17 October
Live:
New Zealand v Canada - 10:10 ITV1, 10:15 S4C
Highlights:
New Zealand v Canada - 19:00 ITV2, 21:00 S4C, 23:00 ITV1
Preview of South Africa v England (tomorrow) - 12:40 ITV1

Saturday 18 October
Live:
Australia v Romania - 9:25 ITV2
France v Japan - 10:00 ITV2
South Africa v England - 12:30 ITV1
Highlights:
South Africa v England - 15:15 ITV1
all three games - 18:00 S4C, 18:50 ITV2 , 0:00 ITV1

Sunday 19 October
Live:
Wales v Tonga - 8:30 S4C, 8:40 ITV2, 14:25 S4C digidol (delayed)
Ireland v Namibia - 10:45 ITV1
Georgia v Samoa - 13:00 ITV2 (was ITV1)
Highlights:
all matches - 14:40 ITV1, 19:00 ITV2, 19:30 S4C

Monday 20 October
Live:
Scotland v USA - 10:10 ITV1
Highlights:
19:00 ITV2, 23:20 ITV1

Tuesday 21 October
Live:
Italy v Canada - 10:10 ITV2, 10:25 S4C
Highlights:
18:00 ITV2, 23:15 ITV1

Wednesday 22 October
Live:
Argentina v Romania - 11:10 ITV2
Highlights:
19:00 ITV2, 21:00 S4C, 23:30 ITV1 ( 1:00 on SMG & Border Scot )

Thursday 23 October
Live:
Fiji v Japan - 10:40 ITV2
Highlights:
19:00 ITV2, 23:00 ITV1

Friday 24 October - No listings for UTV or Scottish available
Live:
New Zealand v Tonga - 8:15 ITV2, 8:30 S4C
South Africa v Georgia - 10:40 ITV1
Highlights:
both matches - 19:00 ITV2, 21:00 S4C, 23:00 ITV1

Saturday 25 October - no listings for S4C or ITV1 available
Australia v Namibia - 6:45 ITV2
Highlights:
19:00 ITV2

Sunday 26 October - ITV2 full of TBAs in the morning
Highlights:
19:00 ITV2

all listings available to date, 8 October,
9 October additions in dark blue
11 October additons in green

UTV opting out to show delayed coverage of Ireland v Romania means that Northern Ireland viewers won't be able to see SM:TV Gold or CD:UK this week. There's two sides to every opt out decision remember!.

GMTV Hours Watch

Sunday 5th October - Extra 2 hours 40 minutes
Saturday 11th October - Extra 50 minutes
Sunday 12th October - 3 hours 25 minutes less than usual
Sunday 19th October - Extra 1 hour 20 minutes

The balance therefore currently as far as listings have been produced, stands at plus 1 hour 25 mins!

The unique thing about the Rugby World Cup is that all the home nations are represented. The only other event this really happens in is the Commonwealth Games - otherwise they compete as Britain or don't qualify.

How much is S4C showing next week?