TV's World Cup Final: BBC vs ITV

With the FIFA World Cup Final in South Africa the world was watching, but the question is how? In the UK viewers could choose from two terrestrial channels, two HD channels and several online streaming services. Both the BBC and ITV showed the World Cup Final on their flagship and HD channels: BBC One, BBC HD, ITV1 & ITV1HD respectively.
Both offered live streaming online through BBC iPlayer and ITV Player services. Other streaming sites such as Catchup TV also played out the final live.

The BBC reports that the BBC One coverage was the most popular from the viewing figures. The BBC attracted 17.9 million viewers compared to ITV's peak of 3.8 million. The BBC showed that throughout the tournament that viewers wanted analysis at half time, not endless adverts. And they certainly didn't want to risk another mishap on ITV1HD which lead to many viewers missing a crucial moment of the first England match.

It is also wide spread opinion that the commentary was of a better quality on the BBC; again throughout the tournament.

With this world cup being broadcast for the first time in HD for every match, what can we expect in four years time? The rate of the development of technology is so fast that it is likely that the young market of 3D TV will be widespread by the 2014 World Cup. Although many people will resist the change to 3D because you have to where 3D glasses.

Online streams will also improve in quality and by 2014 it is likely that matches will be broadcast online in high quality over fast fibre optic networks to homes in cities and large towns in very high (if not HD) quality.

RT @punctualwaffle Proof that nobody likes watching live sport on #ITV http://bit.ly/a8kLJu #itvfailless than a minute ago via webwebwarpblog
webwarpblog