Originally Posted by spursboy68:
“I am pretty sure a Man Utd CL game was on at teatime on ITV, albeit quite a while back. If a game is deemed big enough they would move the goalposts, as it were.”
It's happened loads of times, including on numerous occasions during the World Cup. If the will was there they could do it, and they might have done if it was Liverpool or Spurs, but the facts are that a) Everton aren't a massive draw as the ratings in the last round proved (I know they were partly opposite Liverpool, but even after that it wasn't that amazing) and b) they need some half decent stuff on ITV4 as well. It probably won't rate much worse on ITV4 than on ITV1 and that way they can have both channels getting decent ratings.
They've already got live football on ITV1 that week. And the bit about ITV4 not being available on Freeview Lite transmitters affects virtually nobody. If people desperately want to see the things on ITV4, they'll get it via another platform. If they haven't done that, they're obviously not that bothered about it. Also it's in HD on Virgin, before anyone brings that up.
As for the news, they already have the news in primetime, at ten o'clock.