Is ITV’s FA Cup coverage jinxed?
ITV1 has come in for heavy criticism following the conclusion to last night’s FA cup 4th round replay between Everton and Liverpool, which pulled in a peak audience of 6.6 million viewers.
It was motor racing fans who first raised the greatest concerns about advertising cutting across key sporting moments. There were a few of these during ITV’s grand prix coverage, but the professionalism of the commentary team eventually won over most viewers – only for the BBC to surprisingly grab back the rights from next season.
To football fans, advertising meant less time for post match or half time analysis – sometimes a blessing given the banality of the expert comment – but before last night the match coverage itself had never fallen foul of advertising.
However, after 118 minutes of a largely tedious match, which was seemingly heading towards a penalty shoot-out, the broadcaster’s coverage suddenly cut to a commercial break.
Viewers in the London region missed the only moment of importance all night – Dan Gosling’s dramatic winner for Everton – while other parts of the country just caught the goal before going to the un-planned advertisements.
FA Cup sponsors Eon and Tic-Tac, as well as brief snippets from Action for Children and Volkswagen ads, were the “bonus” commercials – to watch the all-important clip, click here.
This is the latest complaint for the main commercial broadcaster, following its acquisition of the terrestrial rights to the oldest football competition.
During the 3rd round viewers complained about the highlights programme’s insufficient coverage of cup upsets and cameras which seemed to be sited at boot level, while the 2nd round match between Histon and Leeds also suffered from poor camera angles, audible swearing (about ITV at times!) from Leeds supporters and a shot of a naked player in Histon’s dressing room!
However, despite the complaints, ITV1 still managed to secure the peak audience all evening with its football coverage and popular soaps yesterday.
Coronation Street pulled in more than 10 million peak viewers and a 41.9% audience share prior to the match, while the Live FA Cup Football held 6.2 million average viewers and a 25% audience share between 8pm and 10.15pm.
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations.
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com