The Power of the BBC

The BBC trounced ITV in the battle of the ratings for the World Cup Final on
Sunday night ....

Almost 17 million viewers watched the final, the majority of whom, 13.9 million, opted
for BBC1's coverage, with only 2.8 million viewers choosing to watch the match
on ITV1.

The BBC may have scored with a line up of slick pundits - Linekar, Hanson and Shearer vs
the less credible ITV faces including Chiles, Southgate and Keegan.

But the reality of the situation is that the BBC's commercial-free offering is likely to have been
the biggest pull.

So whilst we know the power of TV and TV advertising - given a commercial free programming
alternative , it looks like the BBC will win every time.