Except, the England matches weren't "all 10m+ bankers for BBC1". The ratings BBC1 got for home primetime England qualifying matches (World Cup/Euro) between 2002-2007:

16/10/02: v FYR Macedonia: 9.32m
2/3/03: v Turkey: 9.33m
11/6/03: v Slovakia: 7.75m
10/9/03: v Liechtenstein: 8.26m
30/3/05: v Azerbaijan: 8.10m
12/10/05: v Poland: 8.52m
12/9/07: v Russia: 9.00m
21/11/07: v Croatia: 11.19m

So actually, only one of BBC1's England home matches broadcasts in that 5-year period averaged over 10m. And that was one massive match!

ITV's primetime home qualifying matches for World Cup 2010 have rated:

v Ukraine: 7.93m
v Andorra: 7.98m
v Croatia: 8.07m
v Belarus: 7.05m

Although there's no doubt ITV's England coverage ratings are lower, they're not as terrible as people (i.e. you) make them out to be (the Belarus match was a dead rubber). Certainly, it looks like the England qualifying matches have held up alright for ITV compared to the FA Cup matches which have been down by around 25%.

I work it out as 6 to ITV & 5 TO BBC!

BBC
1.Lacey Turner (EE)
2.David Tennant
3.Doctor Who
4.Stephen Fry: In America
5. Gavin & Stacey

ITV
1.Coronation Street
2.Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
3.Ant & Dec
4.The X Factor
5.Loose Women
6.Craig Gazey (Coronation Street)

I guess it depends on how interested those who didn't choose to watch the game were in keeping track of the score. Be interesting actually to look at the 5-minute periods and see whether BBC coverage is boosted everytime the NTAs take an ad break.


Most were probably waiting for a player to get injured and be taken into Holby.


Ratings wise then were BBC1/2 Scotland's figures just added to the network figure, so a couple of hundred thousand people watching River City in the overnights at least are down as watching the football?

BREAKING NEWS

Neighbours (Aus) falls to 426,000 viewers for its latest installment.

More below.

Yes you are right.I bow to your superior Maths.

Robson Green?

Seven
18:00 Seven News 1.14m
18:30 Today Tonight 1.13m
19:00 Australian Open 2009 0.64m
19:30 Australian Open 2009 0.83m
20:00 Australian Open 2009 1.00m
20:30 Australian Open 2009 1.10m
21:30 Australian Open 2009 1.31m
22:10 Australian Open 2009 0.91m

Nine
18:00 Nine News 1.14m
18:30 A Current Affair 1.02m
19:00 Two and a Half Men (R) 0.89m
19:30 Superstars of Dance 0.70m

Ten
18:00 Malcolm in the Middle (R) 0.43m
18:30 Neighbours 0.43m
*thought to be lowest ever audience (not confirmed)
19:00 The 7pm Project 0.62m
19:30 All New Simpsons 0.84m
20:00 Futurama 0.77m
20:30 The Cleveland Show 0.60m
21:30 Californication 0.39m

Seven wins. 31.6% share.

True. It's a shame BBC1 couldn't get Sky to agree a swap, so it had the Manchester Derby next week. The latter would never had agreed to that, though, would they?


Not as bad as I first believed, admittedly, but the major matches against Ukraine and Croatia still rated lower on ITV then the Liechtenstein and Azerbaijan games did on BBC1.

I mean, people don't fall out of love with the national team due to change of TV channel...or do they?


I'm still staggered at Loose Women winning the Factual award.

Yeah - maybe for Soldier, Soldier and I Believe?


Home and Away not back yet from it's summer break? That's awful for Neighbours - just wondering if it's come back too early.

well i did get a B in GCSE!!

Sorry if i sounded rude - I had also added up who got what, so thought i was wrong - thats why i checked!

Not yet. H&A's return tends to coincide with the restart of the official ratings period- so this coming Monday it will be back (25th) with tennis coverage pushed back half an hour. Nine are running an hour-long ACA that night.

Neighbours was definitely brought back too early I think and now Ten are paying the price. But these numbers are worse than I think anybody could have imagined!

Ouch.


People complain about privately voted awards as well, though. Indeed, at the Golden Globes, quite a few jokes were made about the "corruption" behind the scenes. The Emmy Awards have really suffered from the predictable results (Mad Men, 30 Rock, The Amazing Race) and the voting for numerous HBO and Showtime series that nobody watches. The Oscars still cash in on the fact that it's the most prestigious of them all, but the Academy are making changes to at least get some blockbusters in the running.

One thing which the Academy of Country Music Awards did quite successfully was combine the vote for their biggest award, partly voted for by the academy and partly voted for by the public. The BAFTA's also include a "people's choice award" now, I think.


I think there's just a lack of alternatives, tbh. There's Paul O'Grady but he doesn't have the audiences.

As for their special recognition award, it probably came too soon but given how successful they have been since, I think it's fair enough. Jamie Oliver "used television to make a difference" which I'm guessing was the reasoning there. Clarkson got his because the Hamster crashed his car. I thought it would be Barbara Windsor tonight, tbh.

Bloody internet, always someone with the facts to get in the way of a good argument...

10m was a ball park figure based on the matches themselves, stripping out the pre and post (bearing in mind most BBC1 build up has competed with Corrie, which makes comparison rather unfair). You've stripped out the friendlies where BBC1 was getting some pretty good ratings (Brazil, Switzerland both 10m iirc) and ITV wasn't, and I think the 2008 WCQ matches on ITV did rather poor compared to the ones you cite there in 2009.

As a football fan, I still think ITV and football go together like a fish and a bicycle. But money talks...

I guess the question is would anything else do better in that slot. You don't by any chance know what was in that slot this time last year (I'm guessing Neighbours was held back for longer then) and how it rated?

Be fair, Robbie - as a television fan you think ITV and TV go together like a fish and a bicycle.

Actually no. Neighbours was brought back a week earlier this year compared to last year. (It returned last week) So Neighbours was on air this time last year.

On Wednesday 21st Jan 2009 it averaged 693,000 viewers. A Friends repeat beforehand had 690,000. So a pretty dramatic drop year-on-year!

They should be looking to bring it back the same time as H&A as Neighbours seems to rate better when H&A is on.

No offence taken-I just added them up wrong.

The competition is a little tougher although I expect it will be a tight race between BBC One and ITV1. I think everything will fare okay and I expect NCIS will either remain steady or gain viewers from last week when the competition was much tougher with George Gently, Football and Slumddog Millionaire.

NBC have announced an additional 11 1/2 hours of scripted programming to fill the gap left by Leno.

Law and Order - 3x60'
Trauma - 4x60'
Parks & Recreation - 2x30'
Community - 3x30'
Law and Order: SVU - 2x60'

Trauma is still highly unlikely to make it to next season, despite the additional order.

Law and Order and SVU I get as they are debuting at 10pm but not Parks and Recreation which airs at 8.30pm.

I think Heroes is Dead now and NBC should consider wrapping it up and giving it a conclusion. Chuck unless ratings really sink is likely to get a renewal.

I wonder if the lead in had anything to do with it - Malcolm in the Middle only got 0.43m compared to 0.69 last year. Both years Neighbours barely - if at all - gained on the lead in.

Maybe Ten can't afford to hold Neighbours back as Seven can - they still feel that it brings in more revenue than any other show would? Seven have the tennis to consider, so it probably makes their decision easier.

Match averages would've still been below 10m for all but 3 of those games. You didn't make it clear that you were referring to just the match averages, especially since you said ITV was getting 6-7m when in fact the actual 'matches' have been rating closer to 9m for qualifiers.


Yeah BBC1 did well with the friendlies, better than ITV that's for sure. The two you mention, though, are conveniently the highest rating friendlies in recent years as they were exceptional circumstances: one being the first ever England match at New Wembley and the other being Capello's first match.


No primetime England qualifiers aired on ITV in 2008. There was one 5pm match ITV aired, which attracted 6.4m. That's quite similar to what the BBC was getting for its 5pm matches.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...#ixzz0dCYTGsqX

That must've been a weird moment for Dermot - I bet he nearly left the stage with The X Factor lot instead of continuing to present.

So The X Factor is safe for another three years - will Cowell continue to judge I wonder.

Apparently they have finished filming of the season now, so it might not be possible. With a show like that, I think NBC should offer them a 2 hour finale to wrap it all up and air in early September (just before the new season).

But that 1.8 rating on Monday really does seem to signal the end. I think Trauma and Mercy will go as well but the Thursday 8pm comedy hour will get another year.

That'll leave them needing 7-8 hours of new programming for the fall (they might bring Chuck forward).