It may not have arrived home yet, but football is definitely heading for the driveway with a set of keys in hand. Will it make it to the front door this time? Only time will tell, as England take on a very good Spain in the Euro 2024 final in Berlin on Sunday night. And I’ll be there.
In front of the TV then. Fingers digging into the armrests of the sofa, cheering, screaming at Gareth Southgate to take off the ridiculously overhyped Jude Bellingham and bring in Cole Palmer, Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney. You can watch the Euro 2024 final for free on BBC and ITV, and I’ll choose ITV at 6.30pm BST. Why? Well, because it’s airing first, but for other reasons too. I’ll tell you…
More than 21 million people tuned in to ITV for the semi-final victory over the Netherlands, but it wasn’t just because of the vivid descriptive skills of lead commentator Sam “What’s the” Matterface – the BBC didn’t show the match live. This time we have a choice of broadcasters – and I’m sticking with ITV.
I think Matterface and his informed, pub-style approach is a bit like the BBC’s Guy Mowbray, who is always more than happy to voice the opinions of whatever fellow commentators he has.
We can live with it if that someone is Alan Shearer (who uttered the best line of the tournament so far at the end of the penalty shoot-out against Switzerland – “Pressure? What pressure? Pressure is for tyres!”), but Danny Murphy and Martin Keown? Not so much.
The first one has all zest for life of an undertaker while the latter talks about football as if he were giving evidence to a government inquiry. If only Keown had approached it the way he played – straight ahead, no mercy, life or death.
ITV’s Matterface may occasionally have the super-enthusiastic and reliably cheerful Ally McCoist at his side (not always great when your nerves are already on edge), but Lee Dixon is an uncontroversial co-star who allows the protagonist to focus on the events in front of him. Best of all, though, is Andros Townsend who proves to be an absolute natural behind the microphone – confident, interesting and insightful. Fingers crossed.
Euro 2024 Final, BBC vs ITV: Experts
The Euro 2024 final pundits are, of course, where the BBC has a huge advantage. Not so much because of the sheer choice of pundits at their disposal (Frank Lampard anyone? No, I don’t think so, although his face after Gary Lineker pointed out his bald spot earlier in the tournament was priceless), but because of the fact that they don’t have any adverts to work around.
For some of us, ads are a good thing – time to crack open another bottle and take stock of the previous half – but for others, they’re a waste of pundits’ time. But that depends on whose opinion they’re asking. And by whom. Lineker remains peerless as a presenter, while Mark Pougatch needs Laura Woods to keep viewers engaged if they’re going to put up with the former’s Brian Moore impersonation for much longer.
Wayne Rooney (Who would have thought he would do so well? At least he has a TV channel to fall back on if he is sacked by Plymouth in November), David Moyes, Rachel Corsie, Cesc Fabregas and Thomas Frank have all been fantastic for the BBC during the Euros, while Roy Keane/Ian Wright/Gary Neville Marx Brothers tribute act (featuring Keane as Groucho, of course) is still as reliably entertaining as ever.
The heavily bearded Keane continues to play his worldly wise trick while waiting to be impressed (especially by the observations of the other pundits), Wrighty acts as the emotional England fan and Neville channels all our frustrations with Gareth Southgate’s risk-averse tactics – until they pay off.*
ITV’s refereeing expert Christina Unkel has also been a hugely successful addition. It felt a bit like Superbowl to start with, but she’s grown into the role. She was spot on with England’s penalty against the Netherlands. It was absolutely, categorically NOT a penalty. But we’ll take it.
Karen Carney is also always a great go-to for ITV. So all in all, not much to choose between the channels in terms of punditry, so I might just do a bit of zapping on Sunday. Keown on co-comms? Hello ITV. Mark Pougatch trying to dish up some more word soup? Back to the Beeb. English penalties? Panic. Flick. Flick. Flick.
* NOTE TO ITV BOSSES: The behind-the-camera footage of the non-Keane elements of the team celebrating England’s victory worked once – we don’t need it every time.
Euro 2024 Final, BBC vs ITV: Stream Quality
Looking at the viewing figures of viewers who watched England’s defeat to Italy in the Euro 2020 final, British broadcasters expect more than 30 million viewers to watch the match. According to industry insiders, “a fifth of viewers typically choose to watch ITV instead of the BBC (in these cases)”.
In other words, an 80-20 split with the BBC, but the talent line-up and earlier start time surely mean the independent channel will provide a bigger share than that. And that brings us to the quality of the live stream.
Because many more people watch the BBC than ITV, the live stream on ITVX is likely to be less congested. This will appeal to the many, often younger, viewers who watch on a device other than a TV.
Almost certainly with the additional costs and infrastructure involved in mind, UEFA (who are responsible for all aspects of the European Championship) have scaled back their Euro 2020 Ultra HD, dropping native 4K production this year. Instead, they will be offering their broadcast partners a 1080p HD feed with HDR – noticed an absence of adverts for 4K (or even 8K) TVs during the commercial breaks? That’s why.
The BBC could have chosen to technically upscale the UEFA Euro 2024 feed to 4K internally, but chose not to. Your TV will have to do the work.
Anyway, it’s coming home!
But does the quality of the live stream matter at times like this? Wouldn’t you watch it on an old 525 line resolution, CRT, black and white portable TV with a 12” screen and a wood effect casing in the kitchen (children, ask your parents) if there was no other way to see England end 58 years of pain?
Of course you would. Do you care what channel you were watching when Harry Kane held up that big, beautiful old trophy? Absolutely not. We’ve waited long enough, let’s just get on with it, shall we!
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