Well The French Open is never going to be finished by 4.15pm, which is when the football build up is due to start. I wonder how ITV will play this. If I was them I'd be tempted to keep the tennis on until 4.45pm and switch the football build up to ITV4 before swapping the two over around 4.45pm.

I reckon they'll just keep to schedule and put Nadal v Djokovic on IT4, though.

BBC One had a very good night with the football performing brilliantly. ITV1 collapsed, somewhat unsuprisingly. I hope they're more logical with their scheduling when the Olympics are on. Big Brother recorded a decent rating considering it was a Saturday show; it wasn'ttoo far down on Friday's eviction show.

Well yeah, you had the Cup Final, but the Beeb would always show their FA Cup matches at 3pm, never at teatime or anything, even though they had the first choice, and it was only in 1996 that ITV were forced to show a live match from every round of the Champions League regardless of who was in it, whereas before they would stop showing live games immediately after the British teams were eliminated.

This is going to be a big problem as these shows have a shelf life and the main disaster is if their replacements struggle to get 2 million viewers like a lot of ITV1 entertainment shows recently.
The problem is the ITV brand is so devalued after a disastrous noughties that many viewers will never come back even if they had an excellent and varied set of programmes every night. Some of their factual programmes are actually quite good but seem to be buried against Eastenders and would do better in a later slot.
On a different note, excellent for the football on BBC One last night and maybe they should consider bidding for the FA Cup right.

ITV1 actually started their football coverage 10 minutes earlier than advertised at 4.05pm.

Maybe they looked at the figures for yesterday's Women's Final and thought "nah".

In his what?

BTW are there any ratings for shows beyond BB and the football yet? Before the championships kicked off, I dodnt think it would matter that the BBC are preenting remotely, but I think the fact that they havent made any studio changes at all is quite poor. Also some of the camera angles in the studio didnt seem to work with a panel of 3 and the picture feed half in show behind the speaker on a big screen. Also the co-comm's are picked from one of the lower circles of hell - Mark Bright & Lawrenson (one has a voice that hasnt broken yet, the other things he is one part of a 70's comedy act).

BTW I'm not totally sold on the ITV set up either - nice backdrop but the yobs shouting in the background is annoying. Plus with a shorter time excl ads, 3 pannelists doesnt always work in terms of discussion. Also Roy Keane needs to switch off the auto pilot and get a bit more engaged.

But full marks to ITV1 for nabbing a big tennis contract. I know they'll never have the time for Wimbledon, but the French Open is a brave move for them. Maybe they should look at bringing back racing.

I think it started raining, so ITV elected to start the football early rather than have tennis talk on the main channel.

Once the rain clears, the match could well be wrapped up in three sets as it stands.

EDIT: Why have ITV moved their football studio to a continental cafe?

Well with the poor rating for the women's tennis final yesterday (675,000/7.1%) - albeit with a share not much worse than ITV1's average for the day, a near-record low (have we mentioned that? ) - I suppose ITV1 will be glad to shuffle the men's final off to ITV4. A Spain v Italy footie game is in a whole different league.



You must have just joined us; we've been having a heated discussion about whether that is a good Saturday rating or not.

Friday's ratings: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...&postcount=878

Topic, pocket - same thing!


It is the game of the group games though so they couldn't really say no to it and as we've seen over the last two weeks ITV are happy to let it play out on ITV4. I'm sure had the match been near a conclusion (which was never going to be the case really) they'd have stuck with it for a little bit longer and cut the football build up - but with it still in the second set there was no reason to delay switching it to ITV4.

How many times do have to say this? You post it every other day but obviously never read any of the responses to your post as to why this is not in the interests of either ITV or racing.

Play suspended due to rain at 1610.

Let's face it, no one beyond the obsessive fans gives a fig about BB now. 1.2 million might be OK for Channel 5, but this is nothing compared with the 6 million for the show in its heyday when it was genuinely good. You can tell how far a show has fallen that the day after its launch, no one mentioned it at work, ten years ago it would have been the main topic.

oh ok, yes sorry i didn't see that. cool thanks.

So five minutes before. Maybe ITV did just give up due to the rating yesterday. It's a shame; they deserved more really.

All of the new episodes of Simpsons have been pretty poor in my view. Season 9 (1997-98) was the last consistently great season of The Simpsons, with so many classics that I remember fondly from the BBC2 days.

You never know, George, who'd have thought even five years ago we'd see tennis on ITV1. I'm sure sport is a way of getting them new viewers. I know test match cricket isn't practical, but why not have a go for 20/20, it's fast and fun and lively, ideal for ITV1.
Sorry, George, no more racing on ITV comments, it's just I have fond memories of the ITV 7.

Channel 4 is the best place for racing, and besides, their coverage is superb. With the Grand National coming there next year, Channel 4 is certainly the terrestrial home of racing. People probably won't be happy if it goes to ITV.

I think the last few seasons have seen an improvement in quality. Still not as good as it was though.

Ken

Last season I watched properly was Season 17 (2005-2006) which I thought was decent, pretty good in places. I only watch the classic episodes now on Channel 4 because Sky One seem to show a lot of the newer episodes which I don't enjoy a lot.

nobody under 40 has any memory of racing on ITV. I can barely remember it. To say that showing the ITV 7 in the 70's and early 80's has any meaning for the vast majority of viewers doesnt ring true.

From memory the next two seasons were disappointing and then they have improved. My son gets the DVD's and I watch along with him. I hope the improvement continues because I think they will bring it to an end otherwise.

For me The Simpson's belongs on BBC Two because that's were I discovered it in the 90's. Look at BBC2 on BARB back in the 90's and it was rating really really well.

Ken

Well moving on, I still think 20/20 cricket would be a coup for ITV. Also I notice from the TT, ITV's coverage of sport is far more professional than the amateurish presentation from the eighties and nineties.

The BBC were apparantly saving money by presenting it in Salford but then have paid for two presenting teams, Gary and co in Salford and the ever present Jake and co at the grounds. This decision doesn't seem to be going down very well with viewers.

The BBC has moved Doctors HD repeat to 5:15PM from Tomorrow (was 4:00PM) i wonder if when the HD Channel finishes and all CBBC programes leave BBC1 could Doctors find a 5:00PM BBC1 repeat?