Should ITV be allowed to show football?

[CaptainSlow]

As per the title....

[Castrol Craig]

itv shouldnt be allowed to show ANY sport whatsoever.

[Gun]

No, no they shouldn't, this ad break between the anthems and kick off really irritates me for some reason.

[scirocco265]

Gun said:

No, no they shouldn't, this ad break between the anthems and kick off really irritates me for some reason.

+1

There shouldn't be ad breaks allowed during the game - particularly when we actually score(!)

[Killer2005]

Too many adverts, crap/boring pundits, adverts, clive "that night in the nou camp" tyldesley, adverts, whoever else they have, piss poor sound, adverts. Even Chiles, who I liked on MOTD2, appears to be 100% more st on ITV.

As the chant goes "ITV are fking st"

[ShadownINja]

Put the TV on mute and listen to Radio 5?

[bazh]

Should all be on sky sports for me. Consistantly good!

[Corsair7]

Statistically, when the footie is on only the one main channel, England fare worse when its on ITV. We get better results when its only shown on the BBC. Thats a fact, you can look it up.


This alone is reason enough for them to be banned.

[paddyhasneeds]

No.

They're fking dire and if ITV and BBC screen the same match at the same time, as I imagine they will with the final, I suspect the viewing figures will reflect as much.

[ShadownINja]

Anyone know a radio station broadcasting commentary, then? Radio 5 Live (now broadcasting tennis) says it's going to be on Radio 5 Sports Extra but it sounds a lot like tennis, too!

Oh, wait, they're going over right now.

[Eric Mc]

Earlier in the tournament I tried substituting Radio 5 cvommentary for ITV's own but the timing were out and I gave up.

[hooperpride]

As long as they don't fk up and stick another advert over a goal I'm happy to watch, no worse or any better than other channels and I don't pay much attention to the commentry or surrounding bits.

[ShadownINja]

Eric Mc said:

Earlier in the tournament I tried substituting Radio 5 cvommentary for ITV's own but the timing were out and I gave up.

Oh, that'd be annoying! Which is quicker?

[ClintonB]

Castrol Craig said:

itv shouldnt be allowed to show ANY sport whatsoever.

This man speaks the tooth! For some reason, absolutely any sport coverage they deign to serve up has a serious whiff of rank amateur about it. Cheap, nasty, poorly thought out & presented, full of ads and so on. They'd be best off sticking to 'Britain Hasn't Got Talent' or whatever other pony the excel in.

[Eric Mc]

ClintonB said:

Castrol Craig said:

itv shouldnt be allowed to show ANY sport whatsoever.

This man speaks the tooth! For some reason, absolutely any sport coverage they deign to serve up has a serious whiff of rank amateur about it. Cheap, nasty, poorly thought out & presented, full of ads and so on. They'd be best off sticking to 'Britain Hasn't Got Talent' or whatever other pony the excel in.

The sad thing is that it wasn't always so. In the 1960s and 70s, ITV football coverage was every bit as good as the BBC's with a very strong team of well thought of commentators - Brian Moore, Gerald Sinstadt, Hugh Johns etc.

[ClintonB]

Eric Mc said:

ClintonB said:

Castrol Craig said:

itv shouldnt be allowed to show ANY sport whatsoever.

This man speaks the tooth! For some reason, absolutely any sport coverage they deign to serve up has a serious whiff of rank amateur about it. Cheap, nasty, poorly thought out & presented, full of ads and so on. They'd be best off sticking to 'Britain Hasn't Got Talent' or whatever other pony the excel in.

The sad thing is that it wasn't always so. In the 1960s and 70s, ITV football coverage was every bit as good as the BBC's with a very strong team of well thought of commentators - Brian Moore, Gerald Sinstadt, Hugh Johns etc.

I'm not quite old enough to remember that era but I do remember it being rather better than it is now. In the past, it wouldn't really cross my mind not to watch the channel but these days, unless there's something on I really want to see (i.e. bugger all apart from the odd bit of football), I avoid ITV wherever possible.
It seems to me that it is a tv company searching for an identity and in the absence of a meaningful one, it is acting like a poxy little satellite channel. Maybe they should rename it J(ordan)TV.


Thank God tomorrow's game is on Auntie.

[Eric Mc]

It is sometimes hard to remember that some of the most hard hitting and impressive factual programming was commissioned by ITV affiliates -

This Week

World in Action

The South Bank Show

The World at War

Don't forget that University Challenge ran for almost 30 years on ITV.

In the days when the regional franchises had autonomy and independence (but guidance from the ITA and later the IBA) the channel was a bit of a powerhouse.


ITV's coverage of the 1970 World Cup was the first to feature a panel of pundits and became almost unmissable, especially with the pundits being Brian Clough, Malcolm Allison, Pat Crerand, Derek Dougan and Bob Mc Nab. It was great telly.

[Gompo]

I dont think ITV do a bad job. I used to think BBC were far superior but nowadays they are pretty pathetic. Any sport they can get they tend to go very much over the top with and forget about those covered by Sky etc. The BBC Sport website is rubbish.

[spud989]

Gompo said:

The BBC Sport website is rubbish.

Are you having a laugh? It's easily one of, if not the, best sports website in the world.

[Gompo]

spud989 said:

Gompo said:

The BBC Sport website is rubbish.

Are you having a laugh? It's easily one of, if not the, best sports website in the world.

Really? Admittedly I dont visit many other sports websites so cant compare but i've never been on there and thought 'this is a really good site'. I find it awkward to navigate, and often out of date (or atleast not updated) when it comes to sports/competitions the BBC dont support. It does have a lot of content/information in general but I go there looking for results etc.

I dont want to stray O/T any more, but I agree in that the BBC Sport website is good compared to ITV's.