ITV drops ball by cutting to ads in Everton-Liverpool game

by Nikki Sandison, Brand Republic 05-Feb-09, 09:20

LONDON - ITV committed a football howler last night when it missed the only goal of Everton's FA Cup win against Liverpool by cutting away from the action to show an ad break amid 'technical problems'.

After almost two hours of goalless action ITV cut to a break and viewers missed the extra time goal by Everton 19-year-old Dan Gosling.

When producers returned to the action the scene showed Everton players celebrating the vital winning goal, which put Liverpool out of the FA Cup.

Afterwards ITV1's studio anchor Steve Rider apologised saying: "The goal came at the worst possible time for us as we were having some technical problems."

His apology was followed by a statement at 11.30pm when a spokesman for the broadcaster said: "ITV experienced some technical problems which would appear to be an issue with network transmission. We apologise for any interruption to the game."

A large number of fans have already expressed their fury about missing the action on internet message boards.

One member of ITV's sports forum said: "ITV must be aware that many are cynical about the FA Cup being on ITV because it is a commercial station, so this really rubs it in your face, mistake or otherwise. Unbelievable."

It is not the first time ITV has had to make apologies for its sports coverage. During its coverage of the San Marino Grand Prix in 2005 the final ad break, lasting two minutes 30 seconds, came just as the closely fought race between Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher was entering its closing stage and finished just before the final lap.

It led to 126 complaints to Ofcom, all of which were upheld.

Comments

Ben Bailey - 05/02/2009

"Technical problems?????"... I think the phrase they were looking for is "blatantly trying to squeeze an ad break in before the expected penalty shoot-out..." You would think ITV would take the potential loss of ad revenue on the chin rather than taking such an overtly commercial move that, in the end, only alienates them from the fans.

Nes Sahinkaya - 05/02/2009

I feel sorry for the brands who were unfortunate enough to appear in that space. millions of viewers swearing at their company... and then at ITV lol....

Nick Thompson - 05/02/2009

ITV will soon realise what it has done to it's viewers, especially those of the blue variety!

It seems more frequent now that TV channels are cramming as much advertising as it can into its breaks, live sport should not be effected!!

I myself am waiting for a better explaination than 'Technical difficulties'...

Adam Sangster - 05/02/2009

I agree with Nes, I feel sorry for the abuse the brands received during the "technical problem" ad break!

johnny rambleton - 06/02/2009

I'm down with Ben. There's no way this happened by accident - they were blatantly trying to squeeze some ads in and thought no-one would mind as the game was dull and looking like headed for ET. Shame on ITV - yet again...

CHRIS BARRACLOUGH - 06/02/2009

ITV can't do football. They have an anchor with a passion bypass, uninspiring analysts and they don't give important FA games the coverage they deserve. The BBC treated the FA Cup with more respect. Even Five are more enthusiastic about football and all they have is the UEFA cup.