Spare a thought for football fans in the United Kingdom. If you thought the coverage in the United States was bad, Independent Television (ITV) made a gigantic flub Wednesday night that was reminscent of the worst of US soccer coverage from the 1980s and 1990s.
During the Everton against Liverpool FA Cup replay, ITV went to commercial a few minutes before the end of extra time while the action was still unfolding at Goodison Park. While a commercial for Tic Tacs was aired on ITV, Everton’s Dan Gosling scored a last gasp winner. However, the ITV viewers missed the goal and after the commercials ended, the footage returned to show jubilant Everton supporters celebrating the goal that had just clinched a massive win for the Toffees.
In the 1980s and 1990s, it was quite common for TV companies in the United States to break for commercials throughout football matches even when the play continued. But for a football obsessed country such as the United Kingdom to have to endure such capitalistic moves by ITV is completely out of order.
According to ITV, the switching from live action to TV commercials wasn’t on purpose and was due to a technical error. ITV pundit Steve Rider apologized three times and said “I’m afraid it came at a pretty bad time. If you missed the goal our apologies.”
While it was a terrible night for ITV, I’m sure the makers of Tic Tac won’t mind the added publicity.
Watch the video here to see what happened on ITV before the Premier League tells YouTube to remove the video. Enjoy.
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The fans in England have long appreciated ITV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwwywcM_sdQ
It came back on for some viewers before the goal, depending what region you were in.
The reason was apparently that an automated advertising system used during regular programming didn't get disabled or something like that. That meant the adbreak played out at the same time it would have done had the match been finished in 90 minutes and the channel had aired its regular 10pm newscast instead of extra time here.
Not capitalist evil, but capitalist incompetence. ITV have screwed things up (though never like this) before, and the timing of their adbreaks during Formula One motor-racing coverage made them notorious. (The rights have now moved to the advert-free publicly-owned BBC, who held them for many years previously.)
Back in 1965, ITV screened highlights of an England v Austria match, but neglected to show Austria's winning goal in the 2-3 defeat at Wembley. In those days, fans went to great lengths to avoid knowing the result of a game but viewers were astounded to learn of the defeat when the commentator gave his post-match report.
I remember watching the match and believing it was a draw when I went to bed. I do not recall the post-match report that you refer to. Also, the camera switched to Mike and Bernie Winters in the crowd just as Liverpool scored the winning goal against Leeds United in the same year.