Soccer: ITV football move kicks viewing into new era

ITV ended months of speculation today by announcing a 7pm slot for its new Premiership highlights show in a move which will kick Saturday night viewing into a new era.

It means the new Des Lynam-fronted show - called The Premiership - will be hoping to put the boot in to BBC1’s prime-time entertainment shows.

One of Lynam’s gripes when he quit the BBC was that Match Of The Day had been marginalised to an ever-moving and late slot. There will also be a later round up of the action with extra time.

Lynam said today: "Showing The Premiership at 7pm allows people to get together and watch it as a family, while our later programme is another opportunity to catch all the action.

"Viewers needn’t miss a thing. This really is the best of both worlds and great news for football fans."

The BBC will not say what it intends to hit back with until next week. Its high rating series Casualty returns in the autumn but usually goes out at 8pm.

A remixed version of U2’s Beautiful Day is the theme which ITV believes will get fans in the mood in the same way as the Match Of The Day tune.

The new show is part of a package of programmes built on the Premiership highlights it wrested from the BBC after paying £183m over three years.

Extra coverage will be fitted in to schedules when games demand.

The programme may dent ratings of RTE's soccer programme - also called the Premiership - which goes out later on a Saturday night.