The World Cup 2006

Bad Times article but some good points in it made - i.e the BBC are a bit s**t this year, but not as bad as ITV. They keep getting a pasting on their blog on the website

Shame we can't hear Martin Tyler's voice, he is out there in Berlin commentating for Australian Television!

Just some other ridiculous things from that Sunday Times article....



Well the peak was at 6.30 - not when the game kicked off. When the game kicked off the audience was 11.4 million. Eng v Par had a 84% share while Eng v Tri had a 73% share. The BBC has on average 21% more viewers than ITV for the first week of the tournament.



Well you're always going to get some idiots being abusive but if you read this... http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldcup/2006/06/post_7.html there is far far more praise than criticism.



Have they done a survey to ask people whether they've turned the volume down??? And also while the interactive service is proving very popular, no one knows how many people have been using the 5 live commentary feature.

Anyway the article really is so so bad i hope no one takes it seriously.

Why are shares considered more important?

To me, and the everyday normal joe public, a channel getting 4.6million, and the other getting 4.4million, the channel which got 4.6million had more viewers than the channel which had 4.4million, even if the 4.4million had a higher share, it doesnt make it more popular, does it?

Well its not necessarily more important but it means you can compare programmes that were on at different times. For example if you just compare a programme which is on at 8pm against a programme at 3am on the numbers watching - the programme at 8pm will obviously have a big unfair advantage. The share takes the unfair advantage away and you can compare them equally - obviously its not perfect cos the 3am programme would have less competition but its much fairer. And the Sunday Times should have compared the two on share because thats much fairer.

The BBC's game was on a hot sunny afternoon when not many people want to sit in front of the TV - you would also have more people in pubs etc. ITV's game was when everyone was just getting in from work and later on in the day - when more people are watching tv.

Anyone heard the theme that they play whenever the teams run out of the tunnel? I really like it, I have it as an mp3, would make good theme music I think.

And what is with the playing of English songs with Germany lyrics after each game? I've heard Go West, All Together Now and Three Lions already!

True, but they had several Ian Wright specific threads that had a lot of messages that weren't too complementary shall we say so they closed those off. If most of the comments are praise then it won't get closed down (negative threads tend to attract abuse as well as well-thought critism so they're more likely to close).

I assume the graphics showing the score , teams flag colours during the match are not those of ITV Sport , it doesn't seem to tie in.

As for them , what a horrendously bland choice of design for them - I don't like the fonts they have used (simular to something that F1 used for ages).Also , the colour scheme is very bland with it being tones of gray especially compared to all of the branding material that has been made for the World Cup (rather colourful and energetic).The BBC has done a better job with it's presentation.

I would have thought much more effort would have been made to ensure the astons / dogs look consistent.I also think the 3D tubular bars look somewhat dated compared to the last set of GFX made by the host broadcasters for Korea / Japan 02 which was rather clean - cut.

Anyone know how those were designed?

--Lamar Francois

It appears that the size of the text on the BBC scorebar has been enlarged yet again.

I really like the host broadcaster graphics, think they look very smart!

So we're heading to the point in the tournament where the TV guides are full of alternative schedules!


Why can't they just take a bit of a risk and schedule matches according to who they think will be playing - or at least some of them.

For example, the BBC have the rights to England who will either play Saturday or Sunday afternoon, so they could tidy up the schedules alot by the BBC just agreeing to show both matches whatever the outcome.

But if the game turns out be Sweden v Germany then it might be top of ITV's preference list, for example.