why does itv and channel five seem to have all these obligations with ofcom to stick to or else etc where as bbc and channel four and sky seem to do whateva and few rules why is itv and five seemingly more targeted with obligations ?????

if the revamped voice flops again after a strong strat does this mean the bbc cant justify spending another 22 million when the contract to screen runs out this year ????

would itv, sky or even channel five pay for the rights if it leaves the bbc???

Hope not. It's rubbish.

The BBC have even more obligations than ITV; they just handle them better.

It ended up as 2-2 so i don't think we'll be seeing a 10m peak like on Tuesday.

What a game of football it was. Superb entertainment.

Only let down from a ratings POV by the clash with another entertaining game in the Premier League.

But very good news for ITV this replay.

Well the final wont be what ITV may have wished for.

Man City v Man Utd/Chelsea guaranteed then to be the ITV Semi-final.

I really hope the replay and semi final Itv have are not on Saturday teatime. Good news for the BBC and Voice that the Fa cup final looks one sided and not like last years final matchup of Liverpool v Chelsea.

as itv share price up and up and talk of takeover could itv afford both the rights for fa cup and get the rugby from the bbc??

When will the replay be?

w/c 11th March: Europa League (Chelsea)
w/c 18th March: Internationals
w/c 25th March: Internationals
w/c 1st April: Europa League (Chelsea?)
w/c 8th April: Europa League (Chelsea?) plus Semi Final weekend
w.c 15th April: Europa League (Chelsea?)
w/c 22nd April: Europa League (Chelsea?)
w/c 29th April: Europa League (Chelsea?)

They're going to have to postpone a Premier League game somewhere down the line.

Worth noting this semi final draw is some bad news for Itv. It means a crap team like wigan/vlackburn/millwall qualify for next years Europa league in addition to Swansea who won league cup. It means both Liverpool and Arsenal can't qualify for Europa as only 5th place in the league will get it and Itv will only have one big club in Europa group stages next season.

Well what they save on the FA Cup they could make a big for the 6N in 4 years time. However, 4 years is a long time, but this is a very prestigious contract and I'm sure it would be a better alternative to some worn out film or Murder She Wrote.

Yes, let's focus on the one tiny bit of bad news as opposed to the absolute ton of good news.

Not transparent at all.

I really hope it is; a game of that magnitude should be aired in primetime.

Overall its not a ton of good news though. For one very good rating quarter final replay and semi final, Itv are left with a one sided final which won't rate as well as manc v Manu/chelsea would've done and it means 6 of their Europa league group games will not rate very well. Itv certainly would've preferred ManU/chelsea v Man city not happening in the semis. The Europa league games involving millwall/blackburn/wigan will get a third of the audiences arsenal or Liverpool would've got so if you analyse the draw overall, its not that great news for Itv (especially itv4) for the final and next seasons EL.

But it would still rate better than if none of those teams would be involved, you always look at the ultimate perfect situation as being the norm, and everything else being a disaster, which is getting quite boring now.

It's like basing the Euros contract on an England v Spain final, and anything less than that would be a disaster!

Or it being a disaster that you only matched 5 numbers on the lottery. That would be bad news as you could have matched 6!

Wouldn't it just be better if all the games and draws were rigged to ensure the best tv ratings?

I hope Call The Midwife hits a series high tonight. It has been a brilliant series yet again.

I think Dancing On Ice Final will end with over 7million which will justify another series.

The series has been great overall with great skaters shame the ratings didn't show that.

I hope the Voice does better than last year and the format gets it better ratings after the auditions end.

The auditions and battle rounds made fantastic ratings last year I hope we get them again.

Ah well. I won't be joining you in getting the violins out. This replay needn't be happening but it is. In the short term ITV will be raking it in, and if it helps them finish off The Voice, well it can't get any better than that for them.

Deleted.

Thats the problem for a show like The Voice in the second quarter. For a show that simply has to succeed its got all manner of potential barriers-weather, football, lighter nights, Eurovision, BGT. The Voice is brittle and will need to start well and maintain momentum early on. A January start with Splash for company would have been far better. I get the impression there is an army of people on here just waiting for gloating rights if it struggles from the outset.

Oh dear. ITV are determined to make sure that Our Queen is a ratings flop next Sunday by

a) scheduling Who Wants To Be A Millionaire as its lead-in and

b) having David Cameron's smug face prominantly feature in the trailer.

Hi,

I don't suppose anyone has the overnights for last night's repeats of The Queen's Hidden Cousins and Kevin McCloud's Man Made Home on Channel 4?

Many thanks!

Any ratings for Ricky Gervais: Science last night? Was on both E4 and C4, but quite late (10:40 and 12:45 respectively if I remember correctly)