Who else thinks this?

[Phil Pascoe]

I'd guess it has something to do with the vast majority of the audience wanting to watch the football so it makes sense to show it on the most commonly available channels.

I didn't realise the majority of the audience couldn't get ITV2 and 3, BBC2 and 4 etc.
How do you know "the vast majority" want to watch it? I haven't spoken to single person today so far who watched it last night (I accept I'm in a football free County). They said 34million watched it - have they spies in everyone's houses? There is no way they could conceivably know.

 

[JobandKnock]

I didn't watch it, either. Just saying that as "moral support". But then I rarely watch TV any more

 

[doctor Bob]

I didn't realise the majority of the audience couldn't get ITV2 and 3, BBC2 and 4 etc.
How do you know "the vast majority" want to watch it? I haven't spoken to single person today so far who watched it last night (I accept I'm in a football free County). They said 34million watched it - have they spies in everyone's houses? There is no way they could conceivably know.

well it's an estimate based on good factual input. It may have been as low as 31mil or as high as 37mil, but they won't be far off, but certainly more than "homes under the hammer" or "garden digathon".
I don't know anyone who didn't watch it, maybe we mix with different types of people. Birds of a feather and all that.

 

[Daniel2]

I found myself drawn in, and watched it with a couple of friends.
Can't tell you the last time I watched a match.

 

[Spectric]

In that case let's be thankful that they won

I suppose if they win then people might stop bleating on about how good they were in 1966 when they last won, it may actually be cyclic and they win every 55 years.

 

[Spectric]

How do you know "the vast majority" want to watch it?

That is something that really shows total ignorance on the part of the broadcasters, how do they know what we all want to watch because they always seem to fail to deliver routinely and believe we actually prefer watching the same programs over and over again, just a shame that we cannot repeat our current tv license for another year.

 

[Blackswanwood]

I didn't realise the majority of the audience couldn't get ITV2 and 3, BBC2 and 4 etc.
How do you know "the vast majority" want to watch it? I haven't spoken to single person today so far who watched it last night (I accept I'm in a football free County). They said 34million watched it - have they spies in everyone's houses? There is no way they could conceivably know.

They probably can get the other channels just as can the minority who don't watch the football and want to watch something different instead.

As to how viewing figures are calculated :

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/entertainment/how-do-uk-tv-viewing-figures-and-overnight-ratings-work/
You may want to save it to read on Sunday night while the rest of us watch the football

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I suppose if they win then people might stop bleating on about how good they were in 1966 when they last won, it may actually be cyclic and they win every 55 years.

I didn't watch it in 1966 either.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

As to how viewing figures are calculated :

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/entertainment/how-do-uk-tv-viewing-figures-and-overnight-ratings-work/
You may want to save it to read on Sunday night while the rest of us watch the football

Precisely. 5,300 homes. Where? If they picked 5,300 homes here I doubt 25% watched it.

 

[Lons]

You seem to have grasped the wrong end of the stick ;-)

I was just saying to the moaners that there is just one more game for *them* to put up with

I am more than happy to have footy on much more than we presently do, the more the merrier, given I can't afford all the highly expensive pay channels, even happier to see England in a major final for the first time in 55 years

Footy has to be better than the endless repeats of murder she wrote, midsummer murders etc etc

Looking at the schedules on most channels you could be forgiven for thinking you were back in the 70's, or 80's, The Sweeney, The Saint, Perry Mason, The Bill etc etc etc

I don't follow either cycling or tennis but many do so whats the point of complaining

I apologize for that whatnot as I did interpret it differently and I was clearly wrong.

What gets me a bit is why people bother to constantly moan but I guess if it wasn't football then something else would be the target. My missus can't stand football and wouldn't watch if she was paid, ( I did take her to an NUFC match before we were married so that's likely why ), but she happily watches something else as there is plenty of choice even if on catch up or something recorded, on the other hand she watches all the gory medical progs being an ex nurse whist I have no desire whatsoever to gawp at somebody's innards.

It's completely wrong imo that the vast majority of decent sport has been hijacked by subscription channels and whilst I very reluctantly fork out for Sky sports I'm really pleased to see international sport on terrestrial TV so that anyone can watch it if they so wish, it's one competition every couple of years not every month. Anyone who suggests that football, golf, F1 etc isn't watched by millions is in cuckoo land as far as I'm concerned, if it wasn't then Sky, Amazon, BT etc. wouldn't be falling over themselves to pay £millions for the rights.

 

[Lons]

I didn't watch it in 1966 either.

No forums internet then either, just as well maybe Phil

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Free to air commercial TV shows sport because they have an audience who want to watch it. Advertising revenue which funds their programming is very audience driven.

Therein lies the problem. Advertising revenue available to the TV companies is being spread over an ever larger number of channels - not just TV, but social media, press, magazines, internet search engines etc.

So TV companies need to find a way to limit costs whilst retaining an audience. High profile events command equally high fees to get the broadcasting rights - but football is fairly global.

The other end of the spectrum - repeat of old shows often. Smaller (daytime) audiences for most but very low costs.

The BBC is an oddball - taxpayer funded through the obselete concept of a licence fee and broadcasting goals which are less than transparent - what is a public service vs me too, low quality programming.

 

[Fergie 307]

I do like a good football game but get fed up of them writhing about in apparent agony at the slightest little tap. Geraint Thomas gets knocked off his bike on the tour de France. Doctor turns up and pops his dislocated shoulder back in, and he's back on his bike for another 100odd miles. Another guy rode most of the stage after a crash with broken bones in both arms/hands. These guys are "Proper 'ard"

 

[Glitch]

A little top up of lost EPO and off you go.

 

[doctor Bob]

I find it very hard to believe that cycling became clean overnight.

 

[MikeJhn]

Footy has to be better than the endless repeats of murder she wrote, midsummer murders etc etc

Looking at the schedules on most channels you could be forgiven for thinking you were back in the 70's, or 80's, The Sweeney, The Saint, Perry Mason, The Bill etc etc etc

Have to admit that the acting on the football pitch is better than those programmes listed above.

 

[MikeJhn]

I find it very hard to believe that cycling became clean overnight.

Did you know that Chris Froome was tested over five hundred times during his tour win, they woke him on more than one occasion at four in the morning to test him even after the tests at the end of a stage, one of the most tested cyclists is Mark Cavendish, six times in one day this year, the French do not like to loose, except if they are being given a donation from the likes of Lance to the Swiss bank account, Oh sorry I meant the UCI benevolent fund, why is it that most of the sport controlling bodies have their HO in Switzerland???????? Rhetorical Question.

 

[paulrbarnard]

Cavendish just equaled Merx' stage win record. Now that is history being made and the Belgians upset too. There is a chance of him beating the record by the Champs Elysee

 

[furnace]

I do like a good football game but get fed up of them writhing about in apparent agony at the slightest little tap. Geraint Thomas gets knocked off his bike on the tour de France. Doctor turns up and pops his dislocated shoulder back in, and he's back on his bike for another 100odd miles. Another guy rode most of the stage after a crash with broken bones in both arms/hands. These guys are "Proper 'ard"

Do you mean like this?

 

[Fergie 307]

Interesting how many times you see the "injured" player leap to his feet and rejoin the game as soon as he realises that the referee isn't impressed with his antics. Was it Rashford who caused a stir by having a large AK 47 tattooed on his leg? Someone wrote in to the Torygraph to say how extraordinary that he should subject himself to such a procedure, given that professional footballers ordinarily seem to have such a low pain threshold.