When ITV got it's bankbook out recently what should they get but the rights to all the Premiership highlights. So each Saturday we have a highlights programme looking back over the matches of the day with expert analysis, computer graphics etc all to see how the day went. Des Lynam presents - there.
When ITV stole the rights in a hugely inflated bidding war, I feared the worst. At best ITV would be a pale copy of MOTD. At the start it was worse than that. ITV wanted to do everything different to cash in on their investment and make their programme different from the BBC's. Gone was the title and the familiar theme music but ITV did well to replace it with U2's Beautiful Day - it works well with the clips underneath. Their bravest move (and most foolish) was to criticise the BBC for putting their show on after 2230 at night - ITV went for a early evening prime time slot, and paid the price.
Ratings dropped from MOTD's usual as many people were out in pubs or still on their way back from games. After a few months ITV ate humble pie and put it on at the same time as the BBC had. To make the show different from BBC they also had lots of gimmicky features - to many graphics were used and, laughably, Andy Townsend was put in a mobile trailer outside a big game to get access to a key player and talk through key moments of that game! Happily these too have been stripped down to the basic analysis. Also where BBC put the big games on first and then the smaller, perhaps duller games were left till a shorter time at the end, ITV did the opposite - thinking that they would make us watch the whole thing. They left the biggest games till the end, trailing them the whole way. Again they have reversed this as it failed.
The most dangerous bit for ITV was the adverts. Failing to deal with this problem they put the adverts in the middle of the games! Again they climbed down on this and now have advert breaks between each game. The show now resembles MOTD in every way and there is nothing except the adverts and the presenters which make it stand out. Lynam does well presenting but he is upstaged by his protégé Linaker on the other side. The analysis team are average and not as good characters as on the BBC. The commentators on the games don't compare with the best the BBC have to offer (where's Motty!?) but are OK.
Overall this show is getting better but I will be happy when the BBC get their ball back in a few years time. The fact that everything ITV did failed and they just copied the BBC shows large. To see who the majority of people prefer then look at the ratings when both ITV and BBC cover the same game live (like the odd England match). BBC wins easily every time showing that a copy may be good but only because the original is so great.
