There is a ratings war. Both broadcasters pick matches which they believe will rate as high as possible and make their World Cup ratings average higher than their rival's. Every day the press offices have been tweeting the ratings. Pride is at stake to win the World Cup ratings war.

At present the averages are:

BBC- 8.1m/47pct [excluding Eng: 6.4m/37pct]
Itv- 5.1m/32pct [excluding Japan game]

The BBC are comfortably ahead, and will be even more so when the Japan v Cote D'Ivoire 2am rating is revealed. The BBC's 5pm game involving Columbia v Greece rated 1.2million and 6 share points higher than Itv's 5pm game from Friday involving similar kind of minnow countries such as Mexico and Cameroon. So the bbc's higher weekly reach and ability to draw a casual audience is showing through there and visible statistically. The BBC now has 4 days in a row full of prime time games to keep up their averages.

As a Italy supporter, I kind of agree they did well. But a lot of people saying that Italy shouldn't have won were watching a different game. They both did well, but Italy edged them out. At most, it's fair to say a draw, but there's no way Italy didn't deserve the win.

Actually, the teams are on par with other. Italy and England are both teams out of their "prime". Italy consisted of older, experienced players and England was a more youthful, less internationally experienced team. They played well against a team of their level. You have to put it in context. Put them against Germany or Brazil and see if they play well then.

Why do you support Italy even though you were born and bred in England? Not a criticism but Im just wondering

I don't watch a lot of bbc stuff these days. Noticed they are using the football to advertise other shows like great british bake off. Doubt many of us tuning in just for the football will be part of a crossover audience!!!

Actually it has been statistically proven that for England games, many more females watch the games compared to other football matches. In a normal football match, the audience is about 2/3 male. But for England games it is about 55pct male and 45pct female. Therefore cross-promoting Great British Bake Off during yesterday's England coverage was a brilliant move. There were in excess of 10million people watching, many of whom were the female kind of viewers who are traditional GBBO viewers. The bbc's cross-promotion ability during the World Cup, Wimbledon and Commonwealth Games will be well exploited.

Really? I don't think Italy deserved the win. IIRC England had more possession and more chances on goal but Italy were helped by awful defending. But I don' think England deserved to win it either. A draw would have been a fair result.

Great figure for the football. Both channels will be happy with how the World Cup is going so far.

Will the 2am game not be until tomorrow?

The BBC do this with everything nowadays, it's really closer to desperation than a cunning plan.

The Japan v Ivory Coast coverage average will be covered on two separate ratings day. The 14th June and 15th June ratings because it crossed 2am which is the BARB cut off point for a day. Someone will need to calculate that rating manually i think, hopefully DMN or tvratingsuk can do it.

Any views on the BBC commentary team Samuel?

I thought Guy Mowbray was solid as ever. The four main commentators for the BBC are all better than Itv's commentators, some of whom have never commentated on a major tournament before. Phil neville wasnt great but it was his first main co-commentory and he will improve. Even in his current state, he's better than Itv's Andy Townsend. In fact many tweets yesterday mentinoning Phil Neville also included Townsend and Chiles, which just shows how badly received Chiles and Townsend are.

It was my first language, got an Italian passport, all my family were born there except me, etc...

Oh ok. So do you support England as well? Say England qualify from the group and Italy dont, would you support England or want them to lose?

Enormous ratings for that time of day
I was thinking the same thing. The primetime England matches will be enormous especially as these matches decide if England get past the group stages.

Worth mentioning that Uruguay v Costa Rica was the second worst rating primetime group game for a World Cup match since 2006. Only Denmark v Cameroon [5.1million] rated worse for a prime time group game in the 2010 tournament [also shown on Itv].

That's my kind of optimism.

Phil Neville was so badly received he is still trending on twitter,no mention whatsoever of Childs and Townsend.

Not really, I barely like any of the players. After Italy get knocked out, I will lose interest very quickly. It's difficult to explain but there is a weird relationship between Italians supporting England that has gone on since the first World Cups in the 1930s. It's jus the footie, I have supported GB in Olympics and I do love this country, I just don't support the football team.

So are you not allowed to support another country if you are English?

You weren't far off!

Apparently not!

No, I havent said that. Read my posts again.

The night time England ratings were similar to these.

And you are still going on about it on here !!!