I rarely watch anything live on ITV, or any other channel for that matter. But I make an extra effort not to watch ITV stuff live so I can FF the ads.

Loads of people who claimed to be interested in both shows expressed an intention to watch The Voice live, then start watching BGT on a 20 minute delay, with a view to skipping the ads, while a few said they'd watch on ITV+1. That might be bad news for the advertisers, especially in the early portion of the show, but it doesn't translate to being a disaster for BGT, or being beaten by The Voice.

Both channels can be very pleased with what they have achieved. If you do PR for the BBC/The Voice, you can claim victory during the overlap. If you work for ITV/BGT, you can claim victory in higher viewing figures. Sensible people who understand ratings can work out they both did , very well, and the battle probably did both of them the world of good.

The Voice is getting some good press, so that will help to gain extra viewers next week, but there was already a lot of hype, and some people were disappointed with how contrived it was so it will probably drop a few as well. It will take a few weeks to know for sure how big a success it's going to be, but it is looking very promising for the BBC. BGT will continue to be very successful.

Is this a joke? Perhaps if they only bought their televisions yesterday...

They both did will. The press (and a few on here) will spin that clash but most of us suspected TV would win by virtue of the fact it had already been on for 60 minutes!

You're right it is how The Voice holds up in coming weeks but to repeat your own point.. it was the launch of a brand new show. The Voice isn't established like X Factor & BGT are. As pointed out earlier in the discussion BGT first launched to under 5 million viewers.. shows that are completely new need time to find their audience.

The Voice is on a two year deal with the BBC. I suspect it won't be really big until series two. Then ITV will probably snatch it as Cowell has already hinted he is going to end X Factor UK.

I watched The Voice with a mate last night and I had to explain the premise to him because he's seen a lack of advertising for it and didn't know what it was about!

No, I kid you not, some apparently had not caught any of the teasers or promos.

See also post above this one!

So if the show had a great deal of promotion and hype, the maybe it either could have done with more, or the promotion was not as well-placed or targeted as it could have been.

Maybe so, but IMO the adverts make ITV unwatchable. I'm just surprised so many people can sit through the adverts. It even annoys me when I have to FF them!

To be fair to bgt, it is winning the YouTube battle at the moment. 165k views for their most watched audition compared to 14k for The Voice UK. Notching up as many youtube hits as possible can be important for generating buzz and increasing ratings so BGTs doing well there.

Tbh i only saw the BGT trailer once and TV trailer twice..however i do tend to fast foward through most adverts and don't really watch the type of shows where guests go on to promote things

Impressive for Both, but the most shocking thing for me is that C4 have launched yet another series of Million Pound Drop

To be fair, 8m+ viewers tuned in! That doesn't usually happen by accident.

I'm sure there are a few who missed it, that's often the way, but I think the vast majority were well aware of the show before it aired. From what I'd seen and heard, BBC1 and Radio 1 at the very least were well covered.

Impressive ratings for both BBC and ITV.

The Voice has the first laugh as Britain's Got Talent ratings dip http://gu.com/p/36dnb/tf

Alex Graham, chief executive of The Voice's production company, Wall to Wall, tweeted: "Lucky overlap not bigger, eh? Well - lucky for BGT"

The Voice seems to be more about some sort of anti-Cowell protest than a show in it's own right going by all the comments before, during & now after, both from people involved in the show and people not involved.

Had it aired in January, I do wonder what angle people would have taken.

True, but that does not automatically mean that it got it from "pure hype and promotion" (a phrase that to me indicates a lack of substance, or a lack of real interest).

Of course, some of those ratings will be people watching to see what the new programme was like (just as they might do for any new programme), so the real killer will be what the ratings are over the next few weeks

The Voice probably higher than we all expected, but not really beyond our highest expectations. And we all knew it would beat BGT head to head, but BGT would win over all.

The question now is which show has the momentum moving forward - I'd expect BGT to dip and The Voice to rise really so the tables could turn in the next few weeks, but they'll be pretty much neck and neck throughout.


Let's see who wins if you didn't get an hour head start Mr Chief Executive. Actually probably The Voice.

I think Take Me Out finishes in a couple of weeks so I wonder if ITV may move BGT clear of The Voice from week 4 onwards.

As expected.

This was my main concern (from ITV's perspective) about the clash. Unless The Voice absolutely bombed out of the gate there was no way this was going to be spun as anything but bad for ITV and Britain's Got Talent because The Voice was always likely to win head-to-head given that it got an hour head start.

Although ITV might want to return to the history books. I have vague memories of the debut of Fame Academy having an overlap with Pop Idol and Fame Academy winning that. We all know how that ultimately ended...


Worth mentioning that just about every version of the show has had critics saying that exact same thing - 'It was the first show. People were just tuning in to see what its all about. Its exactly the same as [insert show here] and will drop next week'. And almost every version has followed that by growing in week two. We'll see what happens with The Voice UK but I wouldn't bet against it doing the same just yet.

As for the clash. The papers are going to talk about it and they're going to talk about the fact The Voice won. That's just how they work.


I doubt it. Talpa already passed on a big money deal from ITV. I suspect if Cowell does end X Factor (and that's a huge if) then we'll see a Pop Idol and/or Popstars revival.


Exactly the kind of stories I predicted we'd be seeing.

ITV and SyCo need to do something to stop these stories in their tracks because this has the very real possibility of snowballing into a PR disaster for them. Especially if The Voice holds up (or worse yet grows) in week two.

ITV are very poor when it comes to PR, its already a PR disaster waiting to happen. BBC has Sam Hodges on the ball every morning tweeting first thing to say how well BBC done, spinning the figures as well as Wall2Wall. ITV has no one doing that and are always slow out of the blocks. By the time ITV defends their bgt ratings, the press will have already all reported on Voices head to head win. The BBC really need to thank ITV for moving BGT forward three weeks and giving it all this press coverage and helping its ratings .

Funny how BBC spinmeister in chief's first name is Sam(uel) too

2 words before you get to believe that you can walk on water and spin your way to long term ratings glory - Royal Bodyguard

As for comparing at 8.15 when ITV was on a commercial break - well thats just a bit pathetic.

Nice to see ITV PR being a bit more grown up today

Oh I agree, I do think it was more than that. My feeling is there was an appetite for a show like this. The general consensus is people came away from it with a positive viewing experience, which is at odds with X Factor's more controversial approach. It does appear to have come along at just the right time as well, when both XF and to a lesser extent BGT appeared to be on the wane.

I can't say the show grabbed me instantly but I can certainly see why it would have an audience.

I fully expect The Voice to grow next week, particularly if the BBC take full advantage of this ratings win and spin it out for the next week. It may well prompt people who didn't bother with it last night to tune in. Conversely with the overlap and a significantly reduced run time for BGT next week I wouldn't be surprised if that fell.

That's not say I don't think BGT didn't do well last night as it did, but it didn't win the head to head and unfortunately that's what the media will focus on.

It is funny how the tabloids like to give TXF/BGT a kicking at the slightest scandal. If these shows did die off and be axed, what would the same tabloids fill their front pages with week after week.

You didn't get front page stories from the Saturday night schedule of the 1990s I don't think.

The Voice.

Has there actually been any tabloid headlines surrounding The Voice that hasn't been it's ratings war with BGT/TXF/Cowell/ITV. If it aired in January and been head to head with Take Me Out & Jonathan Ross or something equally normal, what would the tabloids run with on Monday morning?

True. I do think The Voice has a lot to thank BGT for you know. I doubt it would have launched so highly without all this scheduling fuss.

Thats ridiculous. Its been massively successful in all the other countries its come out in.

Cowell made it the anti-cowell show. His comments have been a walking disaster as now the media will blame the BGT ratings on The Voice.

This is DESPITE both shows doing well, and being the ratings I expected. I actually really enjoyed last night. The Voice first, BGT second, then Million Pound Drop.

Good proper Saturday night!