Eyes and balls

A sad loss for a brilliant and inspiring England this week – but what a boost for TV.

Yes, that medium so many think is at death’s door and losing out to vertical video and vloggers managed to attract an average of 24.3 million viewers on ITV on Wednesday.

The game peaked at 26.6 million at 9:30pm and does not even include those watching in pubs and public screens. It’s the highest figure since the funeral of Princess Diana and higher than the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics.

So hats off to television – and just imagine the numbers had England got to the final. But despite the boost, it’s still wise to read this from Nick Manning…