did you miss the word 'rarely' in my original sentence

and then my quantified explanation of that sentence in my reply

I didn't say always or never, as I acknowledge when mentioning the current deal

hardly baffling George, but feel free to disagree

PS - just to clarify in your 'biased ITV' eyes (copyright 'biased BBC' RobbieSykes123 ) I'm having a go at The FA for how they do their deals between BBC and ITV

With FA Cup matches on the Beeb and England matches on ITV, we'll now get the bizarre scenario of Cup matches featuring the minnows of football getting bigger ratings than matches involving the English national team .

2 minds about this. BBC coverage is poor and they ignored 1st and 2nd rounds last time.

England ratings reflect the apathy with the team. A good WC or a bad one ( and a new manager) will boost ratings for ITV.

A run of the mill shock free FA Cup (they happen) would be equally poor for Auntie

The FA Cup always depends on the ties. Big times tend to get the best ratings. It's good to see unexpected wins but TV channels don't want that too often.

Surprised that the England matches were separated.

Dyke being semi clever perhaps?

I suppose it gets greater revenue for FA, much like PL's 6 packages deal they invented to get around EU anti-monopoly ruling.

Greg get's to keep his old mates at BBC happy and his even older mates at ITV happy

A win/win situation

And assuming we fail to qualify for WC2014 (I am convinced we won't do), then ITV will have the association with that stench of failure by being the exclusive broadcaster - as a nation of disappointed England fans endures the incessant optimism of ITV Sport's "only one team is going to win this now - England"-style punditry as we finish third in the group....

The FA's sponsors will also be delighted to see their wares paraded in front of 7m viewers rather than 5m too, I should think.

Applying that same logic though, all sport would remain on the BBC!

FA Cup announcement taking place now at Wembley Stadium

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23339424

clearly you've turned a blind ear to actually the same punditry from Auntie Beeb


There won't be any sponsorship buffers on BBC, which isn't something the sponsors want to lose

That makes sense. Increased revenue and everybody is happy.

UK TV Ratings ‏@TVRatingsUK 1m
#Luther comfortably won the 9pm slot last night for @BBCOne, but with 4.41m/21.2% its audience was 300k down on last week.

Should probably still consolidate well.

Shame it dropped as it was a great episode. Still the share is stable so am guessing the weather played a part in that.

9pm (inc+1)

Luther 4.41m/21.2%
Princess Di's Dresses 2.2m/10.6%
How the North was Built 1.9m/9.2%
CSI 1.7m/8.1%
Route Masters 1.7m/8.2%.

UK TV Ratings ‏@TVRatingsUK 30s
Also at 9pm: Princess Di's Dresses 2.2m/10.6%, How the North was Built 1.9m/9.2%, CSI 1.7m/8.1% (all include +1); Route Masters 1.7m/8.2%.

Yah it normally dose.

Any news on BB?

Great ratings for Luther and Channel 4

Channel 4 second in the 9pm slot....it's been awhile


I think Run will be down

Run - 1066
Big Bro - 1598 (+1 166k)

ouch at Run, but expected ..


Big Bro did well to hold on to yesterdays audience, surprised

EDIT: Increase on yesterday?

Wow. 1.76m for Big Brother. I had no idea it would climb!!

I'll say this about Tony Hall, he gets the BBC far better than Chris Patten. He knows the importance of sport to TV. Mark Thompson wasn't keen on sport allegedly, and Patten just cut the budget to the sport department without thinking of long-term consequences.

If Tony Hall came in as DG instead of George Entwistle he could have dealt with Savile better, in fact if he was Chairman then he would have been better than Patten.

Do you have Body of Proof on Alibi Mike?

Its just sad that it can only manage to reach new heights because of the Daley situation

Any figures for the final ep of Gibraltar? Wasn't the strongest episode, then again Routemasters was fairly dull last night