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England v Croatia got year’s highest UK TV figuresBBC opted for more first-pick games in knockout stagesITV is winning the UK television ratings battle after the first week of the World Cup. Viewing figures obtained by the Guardian from Barb, which measures audience numbers, show the commercial channel had four of the five highest TV audiences, topped by England’s 4-2 win over Croatia.England’s victory in Dallas attracted a peak audience of 15.4 million on ITV and an average of more than 10 million, the highest UK TV viewing figures of the year.ITV also had the second-highest viewing figures on TV of the first round of group games, with the opening match between the co-hosts Mexico and South Africa getting a peak audience of 7.7 million and a match average of 6.6 million. The BBC’s live coverage of France v Senegal on Tuesday obtained a peak audience of 6.7 million and match average of 5.9 million.ITV’s coverage of Spain v Cape Verde and the Netherlands v Japan complete the top five, with peak audiences of 6.1 million and 6 million respectively.The Barb viewing figures include those watching on main channels and streaming services through a television but not those watching on a laptop or mobile phone. When viewers watching the BBC stream on laptops and mobiles are added, its peak viewing figures for France v Senegal increased to 7.6 million, and it got peak audiences of 6.7 million and 6.5 million respectively for Portugal v the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Belgium v Egypt.The BBC traditionally attracts better viewing figures for live sport than ITV and is likely to get a higher audience when the channels go head-to-head in broadcasting the World Cup final next month, with the initial match selections the key to ITV’s success in the opening week.The BBC gambled in pre-tournament negotiations with ITV by opting to have more first-pick games in the knockout stages. It will have the first choice of fixtures in the last 32, last 16 and semi-finals, as well as England’s second group game against Ghana on Tuesday.The BBC also showed Scotland’s first World Cup game in 38 years, against Haiti last weekend, which attracted a peak audience of 2.8 million despite a 2am UK kick-off. The audience watching live on BBC One comprised 78% of UK TV viewers at the time, rising to 92% in Scotland.Most of ITV’s biggest games come at the start of the tournament, though it also has England’s third group game, against Panama, and any England quarter-final. That could be a tie against Brazil on a Saturday night.ITV’s World Cup coverage has been well received critically, largely owing to its stunning studio in Brooklyn with views of the iconic Manhattan skyline. The BBC has been criticised for basing its presentation from its studios in Salford, although it has sound financial reasons for doing so.The new BBC director general, Matt Brittan, has this week begun announcing significant efficiency savings that could lead to the loss of up to 2,000 jobs at the corporation as it attempts to reduce its budget by £500m over the next three years.The BBC have been criticised for not offering a daily highlights programme on television but its digital highlights are proving popular and have been streamed 11.6m times in the BBC iPlayer this week, an increase of 197% from the first week of Euro 2024.

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Journalistic muscles were flexed with Ros Atkins factchecking real-world issues with production offering merits more achievable by working from homeMust a World Cup broadcast be on location? The BBC, for reasons of cost and environmental concerns, has rolled back to when tournaments were beamed back to the UK. Halcyon days of Brian Moore and Des Lynam accompanied by pundits in garish knitwear and beige furniture are long gone, if lamented. How to recapture their magic? Need it be a problem when the domestic market leader, Sky’s Monday Night Football, is broadcast from a business park near the M4?ITV had the first two games – Mexico v South Africa and South Korea v Czechia – but its Brooklyn views of Lower Manhattan may yet fall victim to elements accentuated by those environmental issues. It also asks one of the World Cup’s leading questions: how dialled in is the American public? The distracting activity taking place behind Gary Neville, Ian Wright and Roy Keane suggests a city carrying out business as usual even while hot takes are cooked on the veranda.The BBC’s opening broadcast, Canada against Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Friday night – begins with a montage. “Welcome back, we missed you,” says an American narrator, channelling the hospitality the US was formerly famous for. Over in Salford, Gabby Logan anchors before an LED backdrop of Toronto; this will alter according to the location of matches. Joining Wayne Rooney and Micah Richards, the latter cackling in self-deprecation after Logan digs him out for never having played in the tournament, is Olivier Giroud. The smouldering Frenchman, an actual World Cup winner, is full of bonhomie, if short on words. Unlike in Brooklyn, where ambient noise has caused problems, this quartet can hear each other perfectly.Richards is commuting to New York for his Netflix assignments with Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger collective and manages to sneak mention of the departed enfant terrible. “Same initials, different person,” says Logan, moving things swiftly along. Lineker’s recent comment that – had he worked for the BBC during the World Cup – he “would have been in Salford in a green box” had been unhelpful.Where ITV has opted for celebrity slop in the inexplicable inclusion of Man Vs Food’s Adam Richman, BBC journalistic muscles are flexed. Outside Source’s Ros Atkins fact-checks the real-world issues: Gianni Infantino’s Fifa, Trump, Iran, visas and ticket prices. “It’s not been a good look at all,” offers Richards, handed a hot potato but dealing skilfully enough with issues of inclusivity and cost. “We want to see the joy in everyone,” he concludes, diverting to Thursday’s scenes of Mexican celebration. Rooney, quiet on geopolitics, is happy to agree.An hour of preamble takes in visits to the Scotland and England camps, the latter mercifully brief when it has too often been the fall-back for broadcasters short on material. Next: Bosnian history, featuring this organ’s Jonathan Wilson discussing the nation’s 1992 independence referendum in geography-teacher tweed.By leaning into journalism and humanities, the BBC has chosen contrast with ITV’s star system, for whom Gabriel Clarke alone does the issue-led heavy lifting. Perhaps with good reason. Rooney’s and Richards’s research on Friday’s competing teams is quite obviously limited. “I’ve actually done American TV with him and he loves the game,” offers Richards of the Canada coach, Jesse Marsch. “It’s great for him,” shrugs Rooney on Luc de Fougerolles, the 20-year-old Canada defender.Rooney stays equally noncommittal when critiquing Michael Bublé, singing in an opening ceremony the BBC has decided to not bother showing: “So so, he’s obviously popular.” Logan wisely decides not to canvas opinions of Alanis Morissette’s Canadian national anthem before the game is handed into the safe hands of Steve Wilson and Stephen Warnock.Much BBC commentary will be done off-tube, though this commentary pairing is in Toronto, from where the iPlayer’s UHD service exposes a jarring number of empty seats for a host nation’s opener. Warnock asks: “Is that Ryan Reynolds?” The Wrexham co-owner is sat near Wayne’s World’s Mike Myers.At half-time, the other Wayne takes a back seat, the BBC’s podcast star in lieu of Lineker low on energy. Instead, Richards assumes centre stage, jollying along Giroud. “Set pieces are so important,” Richards declares, dissecting Bosnia’s first-half goal. After Canada snatch a deserved draw, Rooney disapproves of Marsch’s frenzied drinks-break pep talk but admits: “He’s given them energy.”The post-match appearance of Darren Cann, the former assistant referee, sets fire into the belly of Rooney at long last. “It’s not the first time we’ve disagreed,” he says. Logan, ever professional, dampens things down in the sign-off, during which Richards concludes: “How good is the World Cup?”The conclusion from the opening shots of the battle of the terrestrial broadcasters is that if ITV retains the more punchy pundits the BBC’s production can offer merits made more achievable by working from home.