Originally Posted by jda135:
“The main ITV channel will now have to reposition itself a bit, as it has to start attracting the audience that the CL would've got (male 16-34) with regular programming.”
This may well be the biggest effect. A skightkly off-topic and wider discussion, but I have always thought that terrestrial TV lost a large part of the male viewer to the likes of Sky when it started, as part of a repositioning of TV following Hungerford in 1987, when broadcasters decided to reduce violence in programmes. The overall effect was to reduce programmes that appealed to men. TV also gradually reduced its variety, with few pre-watershed non-soap dramas, science programmes, music programmes, etc., etc. At first there was little competition, so it didn't matter, and the fact that ITV and BBC were made up of soaps and similar programmes largely appealing to women wasn't overly important. However, once alternatives became available, the terrestrial channels worked out they needed male viewers at least occasionally. Having lost the programmes and programme makers that could do this, they turned to sport, and football in particular.
Now, outside of world cups and European Championships (and the England qualifiers), such an audience is lost, and we will see if ITV finds a way to get content to reach males, especially the younger ones, or whether they are happy without it.