WC2010 - as seen on TV

[Silver Fox]

I actually think Murray's not doing too badly, I rather enjoyed his little gag with Lineker before sunday's MOTD. The bus pcunts can of course fvck right off.

[Seal]

It's quite simple.

Commercial broadcasters exist to deliver viewers to their sponsors, not to deliver quality programming that their viewers want. One might lead to the other, but not always. But as the people who pay them are teh sponsors, and only indirectly the viewing audience, guess who gets the biggest say on a day-to-day basis?

Public service broadcasters exist to deliver quality programming to their viewers.

Not quite that simple.

The worse ITV's coverage, the less viewers they get for games - especially later in the tournament when they go head to head and get trounced by BBC.

Therefore their viewing number are much lower, meaning lowers TVRs, which equals lower value of advertising spot, making them far less attractive for advertisers (and their TV buyers) and ultimately far lower ad revenues.

If the quality of programming was higher they could achieve far greater revenue. It always makes me astonished to see how poor their sport productions are (especially bearing in mind their budgets are comparable to BBC sport).

True, I was dumbing down and over-simplifying, which is essentially what ITV tend to do.

I'm aware you very much know what you're talking about in this area (*) - would you agree that for ITV it tends to be all about attaining sheer numbers rather than the demographics of the audience? Perhaps that's just a reflection of the typical products which latch onto football on TV for advertising. For them it's very much lowest common denominator, mass-market stuff, rather than anything quality-orientated.

(*) Except when saying less viewers!

It's a bit of both really. Obviously everyone chases big ratings (hence why X-Factor & BGT have basically saved ITV's bacon), but most advertisers tend to want to buy TV against an ABC1 audience. To attract this audience, in principle you would aim to produce slightly higher quality programming. Don't get me wrong, ABC1 is still pretty mass market, but it should be a little more sophisticated than the lowest common denominator as you put it.

Nevertheless, if you are a beer advertiser, then clearly it is a no brainer to advertise during the world cup on ITV. The programming would have to be monumentally bad for you to decide that it's not worth advertising to millions of young men, who are probably sitting at home with beer in hand (ergo in context).

Re: lesser viewers. ITV always lose out massively whenever there is direct clash with the BBC (e.g. World final, if England get to the semis etc). So in essence they are missing a trick - the biggest matches, with the highest viewers are always on BBC rather than ITV.

[Silver Fox]

Don't ITV always hedge their bets and take 2 group games, meaning BBC get the 2nd round and quarter final?

[Whore Jackie]

Is it FIFA legislation that the TV match highlights are only 3 minutes long?

[Seal]

Don't ITV always hedge their bets and take 2 group games, meaning BBC get the 2nd round and quarter final?

Yes they have to try and guarantee commercial revenues, so in a worse case scenario they get 2/3 total England games.

However both would show the semis if England got there, and ITV would get royally trounced in such a situation.

[No Fixed Abode]

Why do the channels insist on having a token black foreign pundit in the studio? Adebayor - you facking can't undestand him.

[Stooper]

[Gus the teenage cow]

british "punditry" is an absolute joke and it gets worse at world cup time when they try to get all cosmopolitan and pc and invite some black pundit on who can not alone barely string a sentence together but when he does, i can't understand a word he says, it's not as if they have a hard act to follow, the white pundits seem to be wired to some repeat a cliche machine.......but jesus what fcuking minority group/pc etiquette are we pandering too that leads us to endure the likes of desially, davids and adebayor...why do they get foreign pundits on, is it to make the native simpletons look ok by comparison?

give me rte any day when you have giles, dunphy, souness (completely different persona on rte compared with sky) and brady who basically devour any player that isn't up to messi standards and will call players spoofers, chancers and spacers without the blink of an eye, it's a bit of a pantomime at times but I prefer it any day to the wretched predictable politeness and fear of causing offense on bbc/itv/sky

I have never known a pundit that has imparted knowledge, i don't expect it...football is a simple game, i don't expect enlightenment, but i do expect honest opinion and some kind of entertainment and for that it's RTE all the way, the others make me want to puke

[6ft Kerplunk]

Lolz at every commentator, pundit and host being taken totally by surprise that it may get cold in winter.

[PistolPete]

What do Chris Coleman and Patrick Vieira bring to the coverage exactly?

Coleman is useless and Vieira says absolutely nothing of note. Terrible.

[ScottishRoyal]

To give credit where it's due I think Rijkard's doing well but then, being Dutch, his English is better than the likes of Shearer and he offers analysis not cliches.

[Gus the teenage cow]

seedorf isn't too bad either before people call me a racist

[PlasticRoyale]

Eamon Dunphy is a cocksucker of the first order who's only played for no-mark teams (google them)

[Nick Shorey my Lord!]

As already mentioned on the match thread, Clive was a disgrace on ITV last night.

[floyd__streete]

LOL @ people getting upset and irritated by the pundits; switch on at kick off, have a poo at half time and switch off at the end. BuiLOLd up.

No, what is currently getting my gander up is the McDonald's advert narrated by World Cup failure Graham Taylor. Graham, if I ever bump into you after watching that monstrosity then my fist will be just passing by your nose.

[Sarah Star]

No, what is currently getting my gander up is the McDonald's advert narrated by World Cup failure Graham Taylor. Graham, if I ever bump into you after watching that monstrosity then my fist will be just passing by your nose.

Horrible, horrible man... according to Mick Gooding

[Nick Shorey my Lord!]

LOL @ people getting upset and irritated by the pundits; switch on at kick off, have a poo at half time and switch off at the end. .

Ok

No, what is currently getting my gander up is the McDonald's advert narrated by World Cup failure Graham Taylor.

Err

[Wax Jacket]

having just spent the last few days in Portugal we should be grateful that all the matches are on free-to-view telly tbh

[6ft Kerplunk]

ALolan Shearer asking what they know about football. You migh know a lot Alan but you've got absolutely no idea about how to pass that knowledge on to a TV viewer.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

ALolan Shearer asking what they know about football. You migh know a lot Alan but you've got absolutely no idea about how to pass that knowledge on to a TV viewer.

Alan Shearer is on because he was an England star, and that's it entirely. I recall a piece on the BBC site where the producer was going on about how excited he was that England legend Alan Shearer was on the show. The fact that he didn't really have anything to say didn't seem to matter.


By the way, whose knowledge of football was Shearer criticising?