Will be interesting what the BBC pick as the two most anticipated games, likely to be Holland vs Brazil and Argentina vs Germany, are both daytime.

I'm guesing the tennis may influence the BBC picks so they may avoid the 15.00 games especially the Saturday one which would otherwise be a defo for the BBC

I think with David Tennant leaving at Xmas, it was always going to be difficult for Matt Smith to replace him. To some fans, Tennant was their Doctor. Maybe these fans have switched off.I think it will take another year for fans to fully accept Matt Smith. I actually like Smith, but feel that the stories have been mixed in terms of quality The last two-parter started off well, but Saturday's one was too confusing for me. I think Steven Moffat needs to get back to writing stories that are stand-alone, and not have a story arc for the whole season.

as obviously Adverts don't matter to the BBC, I reckon they'll choose Holland-Brazil and Argentina-Germany.

if ITV had the pick they'd have gone for the evening games purely for the extra income.

No objections to Total Wipeout getting the nod over the tennis last night, if it means EastEnders will also get the nod over the tennis on Wednesday.

If EE gets bumped despite TW not being, I will find it difficult to fathom.

Fair enough for Murray to be treated to a BBC One slot tomorrow night, though, as there's nothing in the 7-10pm schedule likely to pass 3m.

I thought ITV had 2nd and 4th according to a correction earlier in the thread. Seems hugely unfair for ITV to get 3rd and 4th and then the 2nd pick semi-final considering in England terms both broadcasters are now equal. That is assuming of course they contribute 50/50 for the rights.


Anyway, back to ratings and do you think match ratings may dip slightly now England are out, certainly for the remaining round 2 matches at least?

I think part of the reason was that Englands progress has been seen to be shaky in past tournaments and could possibly have been ejected after the Slovenia match. As such the BBC would have had just one less attractively timed England game. As it turned out England squeaked through but have now been squashed flat.
ITV have got what they wanted really-two primetime games with huge audiences which presumably will have drawn in shed loads of income. It doesnt really matter that these were the group matches as quite possibly these will be the two biggest audiences.

NB I reckon the audience will have dropped quite markedly when the 4th goal went in. Truly abyssmal really.

Picks one and two for the BBC as compensation for England's exit.

I do wonder though, why do they need this compensation? BBC and ITV both ended up with 2 games each.

Because ITV were given two definate primetime games. BBC only had one definate afternoon game. Therefore BBC is compensated.

But the Wimbledon Ladies final is not a really iconic event.

On the Friday, BBC may well go for Brazil v Holland. Even though it's 3pm on a weekday they can then dovetail perfectly with Murray semi-final which will be 2nd on court.

Having Uruguay v Ghana clashing with Murray is completely hopeless and pointless.

It seems rather complicated. Might explain why it took them both such a long time to work out how to share the fixtures.

This version of the pick order is based on what has actually happened though, if BBC1 had only got that one game, they would have been compensated even further (by having both semi finals to themselves)

Yes, but the point being made is this is the scenario where the BBC have had 2 England games including the key one.

The main reason, of course, is that BBC has the upperhand in the negotiations. They give ITV the two prime-time group games and then get ALMOST everything else.

More minor point is BBC has had 2 non prime-time games so could argue they still deserve a bit of compensation. But not this much.

Time to de-list it then?

Two afternoon England games are not as good as two primetime England games. That's one of the reasons why the BBC are compensated.

would that not make the list sexist?

Number 1 & number 2 picks for the QFs will ironically be afternoon games. So ITV may get 2 primetime games on Friday & Saturday nights. Unless the BBC decide they dont want the Saturday 15:00 game because of the Ladies Final in the tennis.

The ratings though suggest that's not that much of a hindrance (especially at the weekend), and the BBC isn't supposed to be bothered by ratings.

I think it's fair enough the BBC get first pick of the quarter-finals, but for the semi-finals it should definately revert back to ITV IMO.

This is true for weekday afternoons, but I doubt there is much difference in a weekend afternoon game and a weekend evening game. The ratings will probably show this tommorow.

Talking of England football, will the bulk of the FA contract (for July 2012 onwards) be open for bidding sometime during the 2010/11 season, or will the process start next summer?

Although today's match will rate very well (particularly as it's on a weekend), it'll most likely still end up lower than the 18.8m and 17.6m match averages that the ITV games got.

The BBC's first England game averaged 12.8m. This one will probably rate at 15-17m (going by past ratings), so it seems only fair to me that the BBC gets compensated.

Also, England aside, ITV probably just about had the better games of the group stage. The forum member, ariusuk, who works at ITV Sport even admitted this. Mlt11 also makes a good point that the BBC usually has the upper-hand with these negotiations.

Less than 100k - so we didn't count it. We only provide timeshift if they have any real effect on the final ratings...we don't add anything together...

Thanks . Do you know rating for the Brazil vs. Portugal match on Friday, including HD?

England aside I thought ITV had a good bunch of early games-however I think BBC have had marginally more higher rating games overall.