Euro 2016: BBC batters ITV in battle of the broadcasters

Viewing figures come in at 5-1 to Gary Lineker's team

Gary Lineker proved a brilliant anchor once again (Getty)

While France v Portugal was stuck determinedly at 0-0 as the minutes ticked by in Paris, at least there was a scoreline in the TV wars, with the BBC beating ITV 5 to 1 in the European Championship final on Sunday night.

The broadcasters’ tournaments up to that point probably made 5-1 a fair scoreline. At least the viewing public, voting with their remote controls, thought so as ITV pulled in a peak audience of 2.7m while the BBC’s high was 13.6m.

The BBC had a fine tournament, Gary Lineker again proving himself to be a dependable and unflappable anchor for the live games – a kind of Toni Kroos of the broadcasting world, rarely missing his pass. He still conjured the odd clever flick, a la Dimitri Payet, with his trademark sign-offs - “Portugal win with an Eder from outside the box” for example.

Alan Shearer, who for the first few years after his retirement was content to sit on his creosoted fence when it came to dishing out opinions, was a straight-talking, hard-hitting and blunt studio pundit. The Pepe of the studio, if you will. He was superb in his analysis of Roy Hodgson’s team’s abysmal tournament, describing their loss to Iceland as “the worst performance I’ve seen from an England team, ever”. What do you really think, though, Alan?

And while others in the BBC studio – Danny Murphy and Lineker for example – saw reasons to be cheerful in England’s group stage efforts, Shearer, presciently of course, saw only doom, gloom and trouble ahead. After the final he was not scared to sugarcoat things either, describing the match and the tournament as “boring”. The BBC money men who’d just stumped up how ever many Euros to keep Shearer fed, watered and housed for a month in Parisian splendour were probably delighted to hear that. But berets off to Shearer for saying it how he saw it.

Cristiano Ronaldo had to be substituted in the Euro 2016 final after suffering a knee injury. Danny Murphy called it early on commentary (Getty)

Rio Ferdinand was a pleasant surprise for those of us unaccustomed to his punditry work with BT. He was the Wales or Iceland of the Euros, but always in lovely clobber. His more recent ball-kicking days allowed him to offer insights into the characteristics of current players, his take on Cristiano Ronaldo being a “team man” was particularly counter-intuitive.

Mark Chapman took his Match of the Day Two form into the highlights show seamlessly and Theirry Henry added tactical knowledge, insight and intelligence - and a glum face following the final.

Over on ITV, it was not all quite so rosy. The crowd violence following England’s opening match with Russia, the story that set the agenda for the first weeks of the tournament, somehow passed them by. It was a miss as bad as Antoine Griezmann’s in the final.

Mark Pougatch was a dependable host, though, bringing a touch of the Beeb to their rivals and kept his team in order pretty well. Jacqui Oatley excelled on the evening show and Slaven Bilic made an interesting TV tournament debut – bringing his touchline energy to the studio.

Overall, their couch lacked the gravitas of the BBC’s. Ryan Giggs was a welcome late substitute – offering tactical and technical nous - following his free transfer from Manchester United but it would have been better if he could have kicked off and warmed into the tournament. As it was, it was all but over by the time he came on and it was too much to pull the match back.

Lee Dixon was in fine form; witty, forthright and a good reader of the game, but he missed his straight man Roy Keane to bounce off – the duo has become a delight on ITV’s Champions League highlights shows - but Keane, of course, was otherwise engaged. Dixon’s efforts to engage with others – Manu Petit for example – occassionally lacked the chemistry of the Keane-Dixon axis.

Ian Wright was in good form in the studio for ITV (Getty)

Ian Wright was impressive too, now that he has shed the childishness of his early TV career, but kept the good humour. He occasionally lapsed into ‘bantz’ mode –he dragged Bilic and Christian Karembeu down with him once or twice, leaving Pougatch to shout over the trio. But ITV’s squad also lacked depth. Richard Dunne is clearly a decent chap but the studio is not yet for him. He looked like he feared he might slice an own goal at any given moment.

On the pitch, the BBC’s Martin Keown was an admirable co-commentator, even trying a little humour as the tournament went on – he praised the “French resistance” in the semi-final. Murphy reads a game very well - he knew Ronaldo wasn’t play-acting the moment he went down - as does Glenn Hoddle on ITV even if he can scythe the English language down at its knees.

So the Beeb and Portugal take the honours while ITV, like France, have reasons for regret but plenty to work with.