Originally Posted by derek500:
“I can't remember a Word Cup or Euro where ITV didn't have two England matches in the first round to BBC's one.”
The last time it happened was 2002, when the Beeb had the Argentina and Nigeria games, and ITV had the Sweden game, which was the only played outside office hours. Of course, ITV also had a full rerun of the Argentina match at 8pm, which nobody watched. The Beeb also had two group games in 1998, against Tunisia and Colombia, while ITV just had the match against Romania and of course it was ITV who had first pick in the second round and showed England vs Argentina. Des Lynam says in his autobiography that it was that match that convinced the Beeb they should always opt for England's first knockout game, which they've done in every tournament since.
Lynam also says that before the 1998 World Cup the Beeb went into the meeting to decide the fixtures and said they would like to show all of England's games and ITV could as well, but obviously ITV refused because they knew they'd get very low audiences.
ITV seem to have gone off the idea of simulcasting, in fact the last time an England match was simulcast on both channels was against Brazil in 2002, a tournament when both channels simulcast all of England's (and Ireland's) knockout games (it would have happened in Euro 2000 as well if there'd been any, and of course they both showed the group game against Germany). In every tournament since then, it's been the Beeb alone.
And now we should be set for some even bigger ratings on Sunday!!
