Surprised to see ITV1HD's figure actually increase following last week's disaster. Maybe the whole point about about people thinking they were watching in HD but actually not was correct and they've sorted their TVs out! Or maybe people were just so confident that ITV would definitely not miss another goal this time round (though there were none to be had).

Primetime Shares - 19:00 to 23:00
ITV1 - 42.0%
BBC1 - 11.7%
C4 - 6.2%
BBC2 - 4.6%
C5 - 3.4%
Multichannel - 32.1%

15-minute breakdown, excluding HD counterparts and excluding +1 channels: http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/6670/15min.jpg

Huge, huge audience for the football. I didn't think as many people would be able to get home for 7.30, but everyone obviously made it a priority and next Wednesday will be very interesting. It's a make or break match and I reckon if on Wednesday primetime BBC1 it would have topped last nights result.

Dissappointing for Corden, all things considered. People just obviously aren't bothered about him, and sub 2m tonight for sure.

Good for BB and it propped up Ch4's otherwise poor schedule. I agree with others that the few tweeks that have been made are excellent and made the show fresh. Also all having it in one worked well.

It seems with only 3 or 4 shows left Ross is going to go out on a whimper and Norton would be the perfect replacement imo.

BBC2 and FIVE held up decently and FIVE's film rated better than Tues/Wed/Thu did at 8pm this week. Wise move moving The Mentalist to 10pm aswell where it managed 1.4m.

Very good rating for the football last night, it was about 1-2m higher than I expected it to be. BBC1 understandably collapsed but George Gently rallied a lot when Corden came on. Corden did OK but I expected higher tbh. BB did well under the circumstances and it's built nicely across the week (2.4m, 2.5m, 2.6m, 2.8m, 2.7m) and it would probably have got 2.9m or so without ending so early. Also interesting to note that The Chase seems to have had a bit of a boost at 5pm since last week's match as wasn't it only getting 1.1-1.2m before? That rating is impressive in that slot for this time of year, especially as Weakest Link had the football boost.

As for the soap schedule debate, I guess it depends on how radical the revamp needs to be. They could change the face of primetime completely by movig Emmerdale to 8:30pm on weekdays (except Wednesday) with Coronation Street running at 7:30pm on Monday and Friday and at 8pm on Tuesday and Thursday, and the Sunday 7pm soap hour re-instated. That would leave them with one less Emmerdale, which could air on Wednesdays at 7pm before the football.

What this would also involve would be moving the 6:30pm news to 5:30pm (keeping Regional at 6pm) and trying something completely new at 6:30pm for an hour, whether it's an entertainment show, a chat show, a gameshow or even a family drama or comedy, which I know is unlikely but one or two imported comedies like Modern Family could work, or even moving TV Burp to a weekday at 7pm. It wouldn't have to be the same show each day and it would be a massive risk so it could be too radical for them.

Less radical would be keeping Emmerdale in the 7pm slot, and Corrie Mondays and Fridays at 7:30pm, and re-instate the Sunday soap hour. The Monday double Corrie could stay and the last Corrie could either air on non-football Wednesdays or if there is Champions League football then it could slot in on Fridays at 8:30pm (it could air on Wednesdays before England and FA Cup matches as they kick off at 8:05pm, and could easily be delayed by 5 or 10 minutes).

What I don't understand with BB is why they schedule the main C4 show to finish at 11:15 but have Big Mouth scheduled to start at 11:10 on E4. So there was never a chance the show would run past 11:10 let alone 11:15. All that wastage for one extra break seems a bit much.

The match did outstanding... its a shame it was such a dead game from the start.

And whats impressive with BB is that it has built from 2.4m, 2.6m, 2.6m then 2.8m and last night 2.7m (which would have got about 2.9m if it wasnt for the early finish) so its really gained momentum.

The officials will be interesting and will add a decent amount because:

a) Footie
b) The 11 minute early finish
c) The amount of breaks was attrocious.

So if they take it from the time that BB was actually on for, it will increase by quite a lot IMO.

Excellent rating for the England match. The match average (including HD) was better than the 2006 primetime game, and the peak including HD would've been the same if not slightly better. In fact, the actual match was ITV's highest rated England World Cup game since 1998 when they got 23.8m for the Argentina game. James Corden's rating was disappointing, but it would have probably done better had England won.

I don't think it'll be a total disaster for the BBC if England fails to qualify from the group stages. Obviously they'll miss out on a couple of big ratings, but looking at the different scenarios for the knockout match splits, the BBC will get first two picks of every single round including exclusivity of both semi finals. Basically they could (probably will) choose to go for the primetime matches, leaving ITV with mainly daytime matches which won't rate too well.

What people don't understand is that the amount of breaks was normal - its just that Channel 4 packed 3 breaks in 30 minutes, and then had only 2 breaks in the remaining hour. See this which I posted earlier:

That's not entirely fair, the amount of breaks were within the limits for a 1.5 hour programme, it's just they were very front loaded during the highlights.

In theory yes, in reality no. The failure to allocate matches between broadcasters would mean that the joint bid would collapse, meaning the BBC could well lose any rights to future tournaments similar to the RWC

Or maybe twitter isnt representative of the real world/

The joint bid hasn't collapsed in the last 40+ years with the BBC threatening the same thing every tournament so I doubt it will soon
[ RWC is completely different, it has a lot less risk- as the 3 home nations are nearly guaranteed places in the tournament, thats not quite the same for the WC]

The BBC can easily say we're simucasting every England game and Itv can have top choice in every round [which is usually the first offer in all negotations] and then Itv relents and gives the BBC what they want as they did in the last 4 tournaments.
Itv really dont have any choice, in your post, in which I was replying to, you tried to make out itv held all the cards in negotiations which is complete rubbish.

You also seem to have forgotten to reply to my correction of your lie that England dont go far in tournaments. I wonder why?

Er… I think you've quoted the wrong post.

Just so we can see for the first Big Brother eviction last year:

1st Show - 2.7m (13%)
2nd Show - 1.9m (12%)

With a breakdown then (exc. +1) of:
21:00 - 2.6m
21:15 - 2.6m
21:30 - 2.8m
21:45 - 2.7m
-----
22:35 - 1.9m
22:50 - 1.9m

So this year is slightly up on last year, but last night's rating was very good taking the football into consideration.

Well during the first 40 minutes Im sure they did a break 4 times. 10 mins every time.

Cheers for the info as always rzt, especially the breakdown.

To be honest the football did better than I expected - I didn't think it would match Saturdays ratings. I'd be betting around 12m for the match itself on Wednesday - would be interesting to see any timeshift breakdown really and in these days of twitter and texting etc. whether anyone might go to work and try and get home and watch the recording without knowing the score.


Big Brother - I think the detail is in the breakdown. As expected, the eviction part held up thanks to it being all in one show (which unfortunately is for one week only), whilst it's clear people didn't tune in until ITV1's footy coverage was over at 9.45pm. Had it run 9.45-11.15pm, finishing around 11.12pm, it would probably have nudged closer to the 3m mark.


And as much as I've said ITV get the raw deal, it's beginning to look like they did well. I guess even if they lose both semi-finals should England not qualify for the knock-out stages the numbers watching the England game make losing out on a match which would probably pull in around 8m worth while.

England though actually in a better position than the likes of France and Germany - their destiny is still in their own hands.

Your post ignores the real world realities behind the bid and you seem to think that breaking precedent has no consequences. Very naive of you.

Two semi's in 44 years of Euro & WCs does not represent a good return. I though that was pretty obvious but if you want I am happy to spell it out.

No George your making it up as you go along [ Last year you said it didnt matter that GMTV was behind BBC Breakfast as GMTV was doing great in demos. Fast forward 1 year and its axed ]

I was talking about the last 3 world cups, Why would you go back further to judge how far they'd reach. Obviously you take recent performance and their easy qualification into account, that must be easy to understand even for you.
The fact remains England have gone past the opening rounds in the last 3 world cups and I doubt even Itv would use results from over 30 years ago into consideration.[but you never know after the Fa contact]

The best thing to do with the soaps is move them to their traditional 7 and 7.30 start times. Bringing them back on a Sunday would go against current ITV policy where Sundays are devoted to drama and light entertainment. However, it does show something is wrong that ITV have to rely on two soaps so much when Cowell's shows are off air.

No George I've explained to you how the rights have been allocated for the last 40 years, there is no need to get in a sulk about it.
Your original post Imlied ITV held all the cards and were great decision makers[] in negotiations.

Anyone with basic understanding of the rights Know the BBC rightly or wrongly have the upper hand but you seem to be unwilling to accept this.

But you can continue to throw insults as you know you cannot rebutt me on any of the facts I have given.

Poor for Eastenders, how come regional news rated so well?

Have to confess I forget EE was on at 7pm, last night, watched it on BBC 3.

Presumably it was due to the fact that the 6:00pm regional news on ITV1 was cut back to just 15 minutes yesterday, meaning it was little more than a bulletin. Therefore, those who wanted to see more in-depth coverage of the news in their area, most likely turned to the BBC regional news at 6:30pm, even if they might not normally watch it.

That wack footie game deserved about 6 million.

:sleep:

ITV1 have a real turkey of a game in prospect lined up this evening as well. Cameroon v Denmark! Should be on ITV4.