ITV and BBC go for goal in World Cup coverage

NEARLY 22 million people watched the last 10 minutes of England's defeat at the hands of Romania on Monday night, giving ITV the best ratings so far in the World Cup Finals. As many as 8 million more may have watched in pubs and clubs.

A surge of electricity demand big enough to power Manchester followed the game and there was a 50 per cent increase in the demand for water as the nation filled kettles and flushed lavatories.

But despite the impressive ratings, few are attributing its success to the quality of its commentary and punditry teams.

A survey running on ITV's own Teletext service yesterday proved to be a bit of an own goal. It showed that 86 per cent of respondents believe that the BBC's line-up, led by Desmond Lynam, is better than Bob Wilson's ITV team.

"ITV had been closing the professionalism gap until England v Romania," said TV writer Stan Hey, who has watched all 32 games so far. "But then their showbusiness instincts came out and they had embarrassing segments from Romania about vampires and haunted castles. ITV even had tosh like the cast of Coronation Street wishing the team well."

Frank Lampard, the West Ham midfielder, believes the BBC is better than ITV, but for more presentational reasons: "My mum really likes David Ginola. A lot of players take the mickey out of his opinions, but she likes him."

Lawrie McMenemy, who appeared as a TV pundit in five World Cup Finals, refused to be drawn on his preferred broadcaster, but bemoans the fact that so many of the "experts" are now so young.

"It seems that TV is the preferred career for lads just as they come to the end of their playing career. When I first started doing it in 1974 with Bobby Charlton we were all still in the game as managers," he said.

In ratings terms it is impossible to judge which broadcaster is winning because it is the combination of teams, and the kick-off times of games, that is attracting the fans - not the quality of the pundits.

After the England-Romania game, which averaged 19.5 million viewers, according to overnight viewing figures, came the opening Scotland v Brazil game, which attracted an average 12 million viewers for its 4.30pm kick- off.

However, because television audiences are measured only in viewers' homes, it is likely that the lunchtime England v Tunisia clash attracted more than its reported 11 million viewers.

Airtime buying agency MediaCom has research showing that another 12 per cent of adults watched England's first game at work. A further 12 per cent watched in the pub and a worrying 4 per cent "couldn't remember" where they watched it. MediaCom knew the official figures were wrong because half the audience for England v Tunisia was female - begging the question, where were all the men?

After the home team matches, the most popular games have been evening matches like Germany v USA, watched by 10.6 million on BBC1, and Jamaica v Croatia (9.9 million) on ITV.