ITV will be knocked by the absence of Liverpool in this year's Champions League, but there are more matches than ever before on Wednesday's.

This is because the Champions League has revamped the Last 16 stage, so it takes place over 4 weeks.

ITV will therefore get more higher rating, and this year, the draw hasn't disappointed:-

17 February
Porto v Arsenal, 1st Leg

Prediction: 5.5-6m

24 February
Inter Milan v Chelsea, 1st Leg

Prediction: 6-6.5m

10 March
Manchester Utd v AC Milan, 2nd Leg

Prediction: 6.5-7m
*Though harder to tell, because 1st leg result could (but very unlikely to) be a walkover in Utd's favour.

17 March
Barcelona v Stuttgart

Prediction: 4-4.5m
*It will be an interesting clash and should be able to attract quite a few neutrals. Two very good teams who could easily win the competition. And, in my opinion, I think ITV showing an exciting non-English game could really give the competition more scope in the opinions of fans. The European glamour and dream has been lost slightly, because of English domination.

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So, I think for at least 3 football Wednesday's in February and March, ITV will be secure in the knowledge of good audience figures for their football coverage. It makes up for ITV's loss of Liverpool. At least all the big, familiar teams went through. Most importantly, no walkovers in sight.

I think ITV still look upon Wednesday at 7.30pm as "their" soap slot, which is why they slip Coronation St or even Emmerdale into that slot whenever they can. They have one eye on what to do with that slot if the Champions League rights are lost after the current contract.

£20,000 per hour, apparently. That's the BBC One budget for new daytime programming, according to Radio Times earlier this year. That explains why most shows get repeated, to get their money's worth out of them. The daytime dramas cost more, so archive American drama repeats are used to offset those costs.

To be honest, I can't envisage the ITV1 daytime budget being any less than £20,000 per hour for new programmes either. It's probably more, when you look at how many studio-based daytime shows there are. It costs a fortune to run a studio for an hour.

I think ITV should focus upon really revamping their sports rights, and now's the time to do it, as prices are low.

I'd firstly revamp the whole sport production, which is pretty shoddy.

Then, I'd have an eye on giving the FA Cup to the BBC and having the Carling Cup live on ITV, because it will be a much lower price, and ITV could make it their own by making the matches nightly.

For example, in a deal with the competition, they could screen the final on a Wednesday at 7:30-10pm, which would surely make the final more popular than the FA Cup! .

ITV need to negotiate with the Premier League, also, in order to bring some football games into the mainstream. They should go for a Saturday and Sunday game.

ITV should really stamp down on what they want though. What they should want is matches that are at the same time every week, so it's familiar with neutrals, and doesn't disrupt other programming.

Wednesday: 7:30-10pm
Saturday: 4:30-7pm
Sunday: 4:30-7pm

So, if ITV were to have:-

- Premier League: Saturday's, Sunday's, occasional Wednesday's.
- Exclusive England rights
- Exclusive Carling Cup rights
- Wednesday Champions League's, though would like to see last pick Tuesday Champions League on ITV4.
- FA Cup Replays, perhaps, could they make a deal with the FA just to screen these?

This would mean ITV would have most if not all of Wednesday's covered with football.

Can broadcasters negotiate with football organisations over specific packages?

That's interesting. It crossed my mind it could be a blatant publicity stunt, too.

I question the wisdom of all Cowell's Beeb-bashing over the last few months. The nature of the TV industry is that high-powered execs and bosses flit from the BBC to ITV, and vice versa, so the people he's pissing off now could be his bosses in a few years' time.

Golden rule of broadcasting: be nice to people when you're on the way up, and at the top of the tree, cos you're sure as hell gonna meet those people again when you're on the way down.

And do they care?

You mean with the tactic of slipping in a Coronation Street or extending Emmerdale they're trying to keep BBC1 out. I suppose that's a fair point, but if I was BBC1 I'd try and gain advanatge before ITV have to change again.

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The Bill squeaked past 4m. The thing is, if it can claim that kind of audience every week it wouldn't be so bad - but it doesn't seem to be able to at the moment.

Gavin and Stacey did excellently, but the soaps seemed low. Countrywise did well as competition, ansd I really think ITV need to switch Emmerdale and Coronation Street around in the 8pm hour.

Yeah, I think so. There was quite a song and dance about the "final" Wednesday Coronation St, but there must have been around half a dozen more since then!

Which all have done better than the Thursday episode. When is the next deal for the Champions League, where ITV can make an attempt to change nights back to Tuesday? And if they manage it will we have another halfcut soap revamp to suit it?

Was that presented by Alastair Stewart?


At least there was a race...

And let's not forget Cowell was behind the Teletubbies single. (Better than his recent efforts, granted)


Seeing as we are no doubt going to get this from you every day until New Year's Day, can you clarify how you're defining "primetime", out of (very limited) interest?


Shocking soap ratings there for ITV for mid December, and with much of the country settling down to a big freeze. To be truthful, EE not doing massively better.

The soaps really seem to be losing their appeal.

CF did well. Bodes well for ITV's copycat show in the same slot next week. (And sets down an interesting marker for it too)

Why are the Beeb repeating this episode on Sunday though in the usual 7pm slot - it would be interesting to see CF get a 10m audience this week, applying the GeorgeS principle, but we can do without narrative repeats in key slots in BBC1's biggest fortnight.


And does anyone, other than you, really care...?

Come to think of it I think it may have been.

"Do as I say, not as I do..."


Et oh.


That is a fair question. If we were following BBC1's method it would be 6pm-8.30pm.


I know, those figures are the kind that a couple of years ago would've been seen only respectable in summer.


Are people gathering in pubs to watch it?


Sure you'll care about the share on Christmas Day, Robbie.

Having finally got round to properly reviewing the Christmas RT, I have to say it's a pretty thin Christmas really - apart from the obvious big shows, there's a lot of filler and normality about it all, even on BBC1. The lesser channels (no, I'm not including ITV1 ) have got some interesting stuff tucked away, and BBC2 could pick up a lot of my casual viewing with its various comedy and other repeats. (I don't mind repeats at Christmas - it's a good time to catch up on some of the things you missed first time out)

The fairly surprising conclusion I came to is that ITV1 doesn't actually have as bad a line-up overall as you'd expect. Particular highlights (in both qualitative and ratings terms) include:

- The Fattest Man in Britain (6-7m, could edge out Cranford with all the promotion)
- Ad of the Decade (5m?)
- Poirot - not my thing at all, but it will attract what may be a surprisingly sizeable audience of people who like that sort of thing, it seems very sumptuous from the trailers (up to 5m)
- Boxing Day should bring a comfortable victory over BBC1's worst night (criminally so) of the main festive period; there will be major disappointment at ITV Towers if A&D pull <8m and I think they will do much better than that actually with little real competition
- Piers Review of Year (4-5m) - won't get large numbers but good to see a proper review show on BBC1 or ITV; I really miss the Clive James ones for the Beeb in the 80s and early 90s and the more formal BBC News ones until they got ditched

Contrary to popular opinion on here, I think the Love Actually repeat will do OK for ITV tomorrow against SCD and the Apollo filler (2nd night in a row...). ITV does seem to be showing a good spread of films over the fortnight and across ITV1 and ITV2 - will help its share and probably dent the BBC's too. And it's not stuffed with TV Burp and YBF repeats. Well, ok, it is, but it doesn't seem as bad as last year...

Not sure about the Military Awards - normally i'd have said flop and sub-3m, but it's up against Crimewatch (shame on the Beeb airing this in Christmas fortnight). Maybe we'll have two "Tuesdays" this week (in ratings terms)?

I can see Christmas Eve Taggart and Englishman in New York being spectacular flops - the latter sub 3m certainly and I can see it do worse than that.

Sunday 27th looks bland for ITV, the DoI repeat at 6pm may be their highest rating of the night, BBC2 will do well too with the TG special and Steve Coogan. Monday and Tuesday have nothing special about them; Wednesday and Thursday will do better, and I think New Year's Day will do OK for them against BBC1's uninspiring post DW/EE line-up. (I know the G&S final is a biggie, but not in ratings terms, and not enough to stop Miss Marple probably winning a decent default audience - big cock-up by the Beeb not to have Jonathan Creek ready in time)

So, will be interesting to watch the Christmas ratings war develop.

Well, I say "war" - the bloodiest fighting will probably be on this thread...

All-day share, possibly. Couldn't give two hoots about "primetime share".

Generally, I just like the see the bare numbers - not bothered about the percentages.

I'm dying for this to do well because it may just tempt ITV1 away from the crime drama obsession. I think Cranford'll beat it though, as it's an established Sunday show. Cranford for around 8m, The Fattest Man in Britain around 5m.


You are kidding me? People bemaon about adverts between programmes, let alone them clogging up programmes. Against Antiques Roadshow and Top Gear, I'll be amazed if it makes much over 4m at best.


Hmm, an interesting one. Marple bombed against Jonathan Creek last year, but then that was two murder mysteries put up against one another. Royle Family will romp home with the slot win, but as you say Poirot may manage around 5m.


BBC1 are silly to have a film premiere clogging up their schedule on Boxing Day. Saying that, I don't think Ant and Dec will quite hit 8m. High 6m/low 7m I think.

The All Star Impression Show will be intriguing. People may stick with it simply because Pirates of the Carribbean is so far gone by that point. It looks like it's one of those 'so bad it's almost good shows'.


Shame it had to be Piers really. The Turn of the Screw'll be strong competition and I'm sure BBC1'll promote it post Christmas. Think it'll be the cloest 9pm battle acorss the holiday fortnight - probably both claiming around 5m.


I can't see it. The film starts in the middle of the Strictky Come Dancing Results - which'll contain both the latin dance from the finalists and the freestyle. By the time it's finished, the film'll probably be too far gone for many people to switch. It's just lazy filler from ITV really.


What really bugs me about ITV is they seem to have weird prerogatives. Their strongest night seems to be Boxing Day...surely advertising revenue would be higher before Christmas?


I can the Military Awards doing well actually, hitting 5m at least. People feel very patriotic towards the soldiers currently and I think that'll boost the figures.


Because of complimentary scheduling I think Taggart will get in the mid 4ms. Also remember ITV1 have a tag for Monday night drama, and with a Coronation Street lead in I can see it competing with Day of the Triffids, if not beating it.


Midsomer Murders repeats always do well for 4m or so. I think that'll beat Dancing on Ice, which'll get about 3m. Goodness knows about The Holiday, back down to around 3m up against Cranford I'm guessing.


If you're referring to post Christmas I think Day of the Triffids v Englishman in New York will be a good battle on Monday. And if Englishman in New York hits Day of the Triffids on Monday, what'll that mean for The Bill up against it on Tuesday?


I wonder how Heads or Tails will do spread across the week on Five. With the uninspiring pre-9pm line up on the big two it may get an interested audience on the Monday, but after then....


Complimentary scheduling may benefit Marple ever so slightly (maybe 5m compared to the 4m of last year), but Gavin and Stacey will still do brilliantly and thrash it.


True. Though it's like that all year round.


OK then - BBC1 win practically every day.

Although this will be the final series of Gavin and Stacey, I'm sure it'll be back for occasional specials.

I'm taping The Fattest Man in Britain as it's written by Caroline Aherne who created and stars in The Royle Family. I think it will at least 4-5m but it depends on how Cranford does.

BBC1 not care about share!!!!!! What the %^$£!"£$!!

Although I did notice a white flag waving from the top floor of Sykes Towers earlier when I drove past

George was posting DS' primetime shares which I think are either:

= 6pm to 11pm
= 6:30pm to 10:30pm

Not sure which....

As for last time, I hope Victorian Farm Christmas increases on last week to about 3.5m, it was a really good programme. Hopefully in the process Mr Eleven will find itself under 3m.

Friday 18th December 2009
BBC One
13:00 - BBC News At One: 3.46m (40.3%)
13:30 - BBC Regional News: 3.54m (40.6%)
18:00 - BBC News At Six: 5.27m (26.5%)
18:30 - BBC Regional News: 6.26m (29.6%)
19:00 - The One Show: 4.97m (22.4%)
20:00 - EastEnders: 8.42m (37%)
20:30 - A Question Of Sport: 3.87m (16.6%)
21:00 - Have I Got News For You: 5.43m (23.5%)
21:30 - Live At The Apollo: 4.23m (19%)
22:00 - BBC News At Ten: 5.13m (26.1%)
22:35 - Friday Night with Jonathan Ross: 3.81m (27%)

BBC Two
21:00 - Victorian Farm Christmas: 2.84m (12.5%)

ITV1
18:00 - ITV Regional News: 4m (20.2%)
18:30 - ITV Evening News: 3.82m (18%)
19:00 - Emmerdale: 7.02m (32.4%)
19:30 - Coronation Street: 8.75m (38.4%)
20:00 - You've Been Framed!: 3.99m (17.5%)
20:30 - Coronation Street: 8.19m (35.1%)
21:00 - Mr Eleven: 2.61m (11.5%)

Channel 4
17:00 - The Paul O'Grady Show: 3.35m (21.3%)

Thanks to MattJ for the ratings.

Teatime shows appeared to boost most from poor weather yesterday, good rating for the Regional News shows, and a very good rating for Paul O'Grady's last show.

Poor for the soaps really... again the shares are quite sluggish. Expected Mr Eleven to go down, slightly disappointing to see Victorian Farm Christmas go down. Good night though for BBC One overall, and a very good rating for Jonathan Ross at 22:35.

Excellent rating for POG's last show, about a million up on what it usually gets! Didn't expect that tbh. It will be interesting to see how he does on ITV1.

Most things seem up in primetime from last week and it looks like more people were watching TV. However very disappointing for Mister Eleven.

Programmes about the countryside have been a staple of the ITV schedule for as long as I can remember. Countrywise even uses segements from these regional shows. I'm not sure it's possible to copycat your own programmes

Coronation Street - Episode 1
* 19:30 to 19:55 - 8.93m (39.0%)
* 19:55 to 20:00 - 7.85m (35.4%)
* 1/2 Hour Average - 8.75m (38.4%)

Coronation Street - Episode 2
* 20:30 to 20:55 - 8.94m (38.0%)
* 20:55 to 21:00 - 4.39m (20.6%)
* 1/2 Hour Average - 8.19m (35.1%)

Partial Source: DS

Not great ratings for Corrie in December even removing the last 5 minutes - both episodes should be in the ~43%/44% mark for this time of year.

You'd have done well to drive past Sykes Towers today - rather snow/ice-bound here.

BTW, I'm not the controller of BBC1 you know. I'm not the official spokesman for the channel. I'm really not that interested in percentages.


Viewers coming back to BBC1 for Christmas? Very good night for them, and note the impressive 5m audience for the hour long TOS against Emm and Corrie.

Noting the Paul O'Grady boost for his final show, I'd love to know how many tuned in for Sir Terry's last show on R2 yesterday. I read something the other day about 14m being expected to tune in at some point. If he gets an average of 8m tuning in over any one given week, and he's been at it for 27 years, it seems perfectly conceivable that a figure of that magnitude would have tuned in at some point to bid farewell.

Sadly, we'll never know because RAJAR doesn't calculate or publish ratings in the same way as BARB.


You know what I mean. ITV would not be putting out a prime time country matters show if it was not for the prime time success of CountryFile, 2009's "most grown" show.

Strong figures for the news and Ross last night - mediocre for EastEnders.

Pretty poor for ITV News comparatively; and the soaps are very low. Why on earth did the "Big 3" do so terribly on one of the shortest, most snow-ridden days of the year.

Atrocious for Mr Eleven - I don't know if it's any good (probably not) but it's clear the Friday at 9 slot for younger-skewed romcom is a bad move. Let's hope they don't schedule Married Single Other there, it would be a clueless move for the first half-decent looking romcom Cold Feet.

As has been said, excellent for Paul O'Grady.

Funny enough, I never pictured you as Jay Hunt. Still there will be a vacancy soon I predict

I thought it was more likely that you were the guy who did Bruce Forysth's photocopying Is that contract up for renewal soon too?

Robbie, you really cant have it both ways. You say that ITV is all XFactor & BGT but the primetime share suggests its beating your boys at the BBC across all peaktime hours. Since BGT is a week a year and the X Factor is only a couple of hours per weekend for a few months in the autumn. whats going on?

Can we just make something very clear:

- It's Jay Hunt that commissions programmes.
- It's then this guy that has the hardest job in the land...