He wasn't.

Winner takes all when those 2 sides meet in their next game in Sao Paulo

England Uruguay is in Sao Paulo. Italy Costa Rica isn't

When somebody trends on Twitter they're either dead or crap. Phil Neville us alive so.......

Never mind Samuel. The BBC can't have all the good pundits.

'Winner takes all' in the sense that the victor keeps their hopes of progressing alive, rather than in the sense of being assured of getting out of the group. Right?

My unpatriotic prediction that England won't make it out of the group looks fairly solid at this point.

To be fair, the BBC and itv needn't be too gutted as there's plenty going on in this World Cup besides England to engage audiences on a serious level.

I have heard from a reliable source at the BBC that over night ratings are showing that Italy v England rated extremely well last night.

Early indications show that the match was the most watched television program in the United Kingdom for 2 years (since the Olympic Games closing ceremony).

Early indications also suggest last nights broadcast was the most watched program in the 11pm-1am time slot ever shown in the United Kingdom.

I imagine it did do exceptionally well. I expect shares of 80%+. However ratings aren't released until 9:30am.

16:00 - MOTD Live: England vs Italy Preview: 1.57m (17.2%)
16:30 - MOTD Live: Colombia vs Greece: 4.57m (34.3%)
19:10 - BBC News: 4.31m (26.5%)
19:20 - BBC Regional News: 4.27m (25.9%)
19:30 - Pointless: 4.11m (23.5%)
20:20 - Lottery: In It to Win It: 3.81m (19.8%)
21:10 - Casualty: 3.89m (19.0%)
22:00 - BBC News: 4.96m (25.3%)
22:20 - MOTD Live: England vs Italy: 11.51m (68.4%)
01:30 - Weatherview: 1.86m (37.7%)

UK TV Ratings ‏@TVRatingsUK 20s
England v Italy peaked last night with a mighty 15.65m/78.5% at 11.40pm.

Excellent rating, comfortably above the 10m average and 15m peak target the BBC set themselves.

Great for the football, could be some enormous ratings for the ones in primetime on that measure!

It was fairly obvious that England are relatively poor and I was as pessimistic as you but the next game will still be hugh ratings wise. If England dont get a result though not sure what would happen in third game.

England v Uruguay is such a big game now, I think it will rate even higher in that 7pm slot- 15m average?

78% wow!! is that the highest ever share recorded?

No the Opening and Closing ceremonies in the Olympics got over 80% if I remember correctly.

Still an amazing share though!

I doubt the BBC set targets for world cup matches when there is very little they need to do in terms of quality of production or promotion to get people watching.

After the figures of Brazil v Croatia, and Spain v Netherlands those england numbers look rather low, the peak only being 4m higher. What it does mean is that as was said by Dancc earlier even if England get knocked out, the ratings for the other matches are sufficiently high enough

....no, London Olympics says hi.

UK TV Ratings ‏@TVRatingsUK
Earlier, ITV's coverage of Uruguay-Costa Rica averaged 5.50m/28.8%. Before that, Colombia v Greece on BBC1 drew 4.57m/34.3%.
9:38 AM - 15 Jun 2014

I'm intrigued to see how many were going to watch Ivory Coast vs Japan on ITV, wonder how that build-up from 01:30 to 02:00 did...

Those two games you mentioned were in prime time. If England's game had been in prime time yesterday, the peak would've been at least 3million higher than it was. It's a very strong rating for the BBC who are winning the World cup ratings war so far.

Thanks guys

I hope England do make it out of the group but watching them last night I have little hope unless they perform a miracle on Thursday.

We might get a 19 million rated game if they make it to the knock outs

Wow, fantastic!

Thats what I like - optimism !!!

England v Italy last night was the following

*The highest rated program ever shown after 11pm in over 80 years of television broadcasting in the United Kingdom

* The third highest audience share ever recorded in the United Kingdom

* Most watched television program in the United Kingdom for 2 years

* Highest average audience ever recorded for its time slot

* Most watched television program in its time slot in the whole of Europe for over 20 years

You want optimism?

The group results:
Italy draw with Costa Rica
England beat Uruguay

Italy draw with Uruguay
England beat Costa Rica

Final group table:
England 6pts
Italy 5pts
Costa Rica 4pts
Uruguay 1pt.



K

It's not unpatriotic. I find it hard to be patriotic when it comes to the English football squad. I got ripped to shreds on facebook last night for saying so. For weeks leading up to the tournament everyone knew our team was actually, well, crap! Then all of a sudden the same drunken chants of "Come on Eeeeeennnnnggggglllllaaaaannnnddd" get shouted, a bizarre ritual of having flags flying from cars, people buying gallons of beer from the supermarket and then they have the audacity to tell me that I should, and MUST support the England football team, otherwise I'm not patriotic and, what's more, because the person telling me I must support England is "passionate about football and his country" he tells me he is personally insulted at my reluctance and refusal to back Looney Rooney and co.

When reality sets in, and England lose (which they did) everyone goes back to saying how crap they were!

When England put out a bloody good team, full of potential, passion, aspiration and determination to win, and WANT to win, (not just assume a right to win because they're England), then I will happily and whole-heartedly support them. I am passionate about my country, we have much to be proud of, but the England team isn't one of those things. Therefore no pretentious cheer-leading is going to come from my disinterested voice!

I don't suppose we know how the Italian figures went?