the end of Soccernight

[Tellyboy]

Luv or hate it - Soccernight is in it's last series. In fact - the current series of Soccernight is the last local sport programme to go out on ITV.... ever. This is due to ITV's continued efforts to do away with all local programmes. The lack of awareness they have of the importance of local programmes is reflected in the way they're bouncing Soccernight's transmission time all over the schedules.
The next season? The 'rights' will still be with ITV for Championship down coverage - so why are they cancelling the Soccernights from all ITV regions? Where will we see Seagulls in action? Well apart from along the prom, we might get just the goals on Meridian Tonight, or maybe on the Network version of Soccernight - "The Championship" - which goes out on Sunday mornings..... if we're lucky. Rumour has it that even this will be cut to half an hour.
There's always the f*****g internet I s'pose. What a waste - ITV have the rights next season and they're throwing it away.

 

[Fourteenth Eye]

That is bad news.

Its never been the greatest show on earth but in its own way its quite endearing

 

[Cian]

Thank feck UTV haven't been subsumed yet, we still get relatively decent coverage of local sports, although they only give minor coverage to the ELOI football their motorsports coverage is top notch...

UTV will likely keep their Irish League equivalent of Soccernight too, like they way they kept the regional talk show at 5pm, etc.

 

[clapham_gull]

Its probably more due to the fact that ITV have LOST the football league rights.

 

[Tellyboy]

Its probably more due to the fact that ITV have LOST the football league rights.

Yes but they still have rights to next season. Why not one more series of Soccernight for that?

 

[The Large One]

Surely this would go against the terms of their contract?

 

[Storer68]

Football League and Carling Cup coverage will switch to the BBC in 2009.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

Football is so half harted on ITV, unless it's Chumps league.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Des, where are you ?

 

[clapham_gull]

Surely this would go against the terms of their contract?

Maybe under no obligation to produce it once the rights have been paid ?

.. or possibly they've bought themselves out of it.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

On now.

 

[Joshski]

Hate to say it as the company are utter sh"t but Virgin Media is the best bet for watching highlights by far! Usually show a little advert first but then u usually get around a minute of highlights, which is far better that the toss coverage we get on The Championship!

 

[Easy 10]

Oh piss.
I forgot it was on tonight. I was watching Life on mars.

 

[Zesh Rehman]

Well if Southampton go down then who would they show on Soccernight show anyway!

 

[bright1064]

Oh piss.
I forgot it was on tonight. I was watching Life on mars.

You didnt miss much to be honest mate. I was under the impression they were going to have the Forest tie as the featured game. Instead they covered the Bournemouth v Tranmere match, and showed about 90 seconds of Albion footage

It's not the greatest show in the world. However it does a job when covering local football teams, and I for one will miss that.

Is there any other channel that will be taking on league 1 highlights?

 

[trueblue]

This is all to do, I think, with another reduction in what ITV calls "regional hours". Because of the increased competition from other broadcasters (like Sky, for instance, who have had far fewer restrictions imposed on them than traditional TV companies and have therefore been able to make money much more easily), the regulators have gradually relaxed the rules regarding local programmes.

Where ten years ago Meridian would have had to put out, say, 20 hours of regional programmes a week (not sure of the exact figures), that number is now down to a level where the news bulletins are enough. Anything over and above those gets thIte chop to save money which, like it or not, is why ITV - like all other commercial companies - exists.

It's also why the ad breaks have been getting longer and more frequent (although still not as long as Sky).

It's a pisser for local footy coverage, but nothing to do with the end of the rights deal.

 

[The Large One]

Oh piss.
I forgot it was on tonight. I was watching Life on mars.

FDM did look dead good.

 

[gullshark]

Yeah, some of FDM's saves were immense.

And the one that beat him and hit the post, how the hell did that not go in!

 

[Braders]

not a major loss since they started pissing about with the times and days and that i've not had the chance to watch it (Thursday night was PERFECT for it i felt , made you feel ready for the Saturday game without it being ages away still)

but nowadays what with the Virgin site and Sky Sports doing a much better job of it (i.e not spending every 5 seconds bumfucking Portsmouth and Southampton) i won't shed a tear to be honest

but one thing in its favour , the closing credits tune - proper music!

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

You would have thought, with ITV's 2, 3 & 4 just showing crap & repeats, there would be some time on the schedules somewhere for a decent footie show.