England fans were left furious with many vowing to shun ITV’s World Cup coverage after the channel’s “garbage” footage quality of England’s friendly New Zealand ahead of the tournament.
Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions faced New Zealand at the Raymond James Stadium in Florida on Saturday evening, in their second-to-last match before the cup.
But fans tuning in from Britain were shocked by the shaky camerawork, grainy quality, lack of commentary and lagging audio. Many swore off the channel ahead of the Fifa tournament, promising to stick to the BBC’s coverage.
One fan vented on X: “ITV picture quality on this England game is garbage. Like watching Mexico 86.”
A second said: “ITV apologies for the 70mins, plus HT of ‘loss of sound’. What an absolute shambles of a network. Please, please, please, do not allow these amateurs to broadcast any important England game during the Fifa World Cup.”
He added: “So ITV have decided to come back from the HT break, still without any commentary, any words, from anyone. 45mins plus they’ve had to sort that. Just silence, and ambient crowd noise. What an absolute shambles of a network they are. “
View 2 ImagesITV were forced to apologise during their coverage of England’s Six Nations showdown with France.(Image: Getty Images)
Another said: “American host image + ITV = absolute s*** picture quality. World Cup will look crap on ITV, at least BBC will be having a 4k feed.” A fourth added:”I TV are an absolute disgrace already this World Cup. Last night Brazil v Egypt commentary at least 5 seconds behind the pictures and tonight a friendly no commentary at all!”
A sixth said: “Football commentary is at a low point in this country. It’s very much a lost art and only a handful of decent commentators and co-commentators exist now. The debacle of the CL final on TNT and that dross from ITV for the England game last night shows it.”
Another said: “If this is the quality of football coverage we will be getting on ITV ( Morocco v Norway) then it’ll be BBC for me during the World Cup. Why is there no commentary on ITV4 for this game? “
However, some supporters came to ITV’s defence. One noted: “It is the same on the BBC for the Scotland game.” And a second pointed out: “It’s the American footage.”
An ITV source told the Mirror that the match coverage came from a third-party feed, and was not ITV camera work or picture delivery.
It is unclear if the same third party provider will be used for the World Cup Games and ITV have declined to comment further.
One X user said: “It’s using a different broadcast/feed. The World Cup broadcast will be completely different and hopefully better.”
Out on the pitch on Saturday, Tuchel lined up a starting XI featuring Jordan Pickford, John Stones, Marc Guehi, Jarrell Quansah, Djed Spence, Jordan Henderson, Kobbie Mainoo, Morgan Rogers, Marcus Rashford, Ollie Watkins and Harry Kane.
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For nearly 45 minutes the play was steady but with just a minute remaining before the break, Kane handed England the advantage in Tampa.
Spence was gifted acres of space down the left flank, before the full-back cut inside onto his right foot and whipped the ball in. Kane escaped his marker and flicked a header in at the far post to put England 1-0 up.