The World Cup 2006

Gabby is eye candy!

ITV1's live coverage of the game, which put through into the second round, was watched by 14.1 million viewers and attracted a massive 73% share between 5pm and 7pm, according to unofficial overnights.

The football audience grew from 11.4 million viewers at 5pm to a peak of 16.5 million towards the end of the match between 6.30pm and 6.45pm.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/overnights/story/0,,1799225,00.html

These audience shares are amazing in this multi channel era

I'd expect an even bigger share on Tuesday as all the other channels have cleared their schedules. BBC1 have got a Judge John Deed repeat followed by 2 brand new episodes of A Life of Grime. I presume they are killing this series off now then and it will be axed?!

Even Channel 4 have moved Big Brother out of the way and are showing some obscure film. The sort of alternative schedules you used to get on 4 in the old days!

With it being an 8pm kick off I'd expect the actual audience to be bigger as well

Is Steve Rider doing any matches other than the England games? I know he did the F1 last weekend and presumably they'll be another one in a couple of weeks, but last night was the first time I'd seen him present any football match actually.


Out of all the BBC and ITV presenters this year, who do you think is the best?

I think Gabby Logan kicks Linekers arse to be honest!

No, no, no. For me it's Linekar and Hansen all the way. I feel a bit sorry for the way ITV have treated Logan by dropping her from England games, but it only reinforces the fact that she lacks a certain authority.

I thought Steve Ryder did pretty well yesterday, it's just a shame the breathless Sam Allardyce and Terry Venebles are such tosspots. Stuart Pearce has proven himself a decent pundit, but Gareth Southgate was simply awful.

Clive Tyldsley (sp?) is as bad a commentator as Motson- Both ITV and BBC give their best (England) games to their worst commentators.

I think the Tuesday match will be only a bit higher in audience terms- with it being an evening kick off there's more opportunity for people to hit bars and pubs to watch it. It'll be ITV's last epic audience for this world cup - any England games in the 2nd round and quarter final will be on the BBC and after that on both (where ITV will get humped ratings wise as usual).

The BBC will be delighted to have the 2nd round match exclusively- depending on whether England finish group winners or runners up, the match will be at 3pm on Saturday 24th or Sunday 25th. The audience will be massive at that time of day on a weekend.

It is a very strange deal with the knock-out games. You'd expect that if England did make the quarter finals that the game would return to ITV.

It kind of suggests that although the other games are split 50/50, maybe the BBC have paid the greater share for the rights this time around?

I can't work out if it is a fair split or not

Even though ITV lose out in the knockout stages, in the group stages they do get 2 out of 3 England matches, plus all other non-England games in Group B, more than half of the 5pm/8pm games and 25 group games in total against the BBC's 23

I do think that if England reach the semis that should have been exclusively live on ITV1, which would mean an equal split of 4 games each if England go all the way

The reason for the split is fairly obvious really.

ITV's only *really big* World Cup audiences are the England games- these are the things that justify the stripping of the schedule and removing the rating grabbing soaps-fest that is the usual evening lineup on ITV.

So ITV have to please the advertisers and deliver very healthy ratings for the England games.

So unsurprisingly in terms of risk, they had to adopt the least risky strategy (you can't blame them)- they went for two guaranteed big audiences. The BBC were able to take the gamble on England reaching the 2nd round, and are gambling on them reaching the QFs.

If the deal had been negotiated the other way (ITV had the 2nd round and QF) and then England didn't qualify from the group, they would be mauled by the advertisers for only delivering one big audience.

i find Lineker ruins any broadcast nowadays with his compunction to stuff a hilarious gag into his every link. it's just tiresome now and shows that the BBC would rather have pub chat than any actual football insight during half-time breaks.

At least the BBC provide analysis during half time! They've got a really good turnaround for putting e.g. tracing line for runs, offside shadings etc. and provide a top service.

ITV at half time is 70% adverts and a bit of innane chat. Admittedly the Budweiser ads are a million times better than Sam Allardyce!

Lineker and co = cheap smut! Steve Rider is the most professional anchor around, pleasure to watch. Now, if Gabby Logan talked smut at half time that'd be different - I'd pay a subscription for that!

I must say RTÉ are really putting on a good show this year. Yes, its practically the same set as before and they use the host graphics but the atmosphere in the studio, the freedom to not mention England every other sentence and the unique gems like the spoofs of other broadcasters at the end (the BBC NI one tonight was brilliant!) make a great show that BBC and ITV can't match.