World Cup 2014: BBC will show England opener

THE BBC will show England's opening World Cup match against Italy on 14 June with ITV taking on the other two group games against Uruguay and Costa Rica.

The public service broadcaster compensates for only having one of the three guaranteed England matches by getting first choice in the last 16 and the semi finals - and that means ITV has first pick at the quarter final stage.

Both channels will show the Final on 13 July in a head-to-head affair which the BBC can expect to win comfortably. It had five times as many viewers as ITV for the 2010 Final when Spain beat Netherlands 1-0.

Now, following the remarkable draw last week, that fixture will be repeated in the group stages of World Cup 2014 - and it is the BBC which has scored a coup by getting the rights to show it in its first broadcast of the tournament.

Indeed, the Beeb has done rather well out of the split in that it will show Spain, France, Italy, Germany, and Portugal twice as often as ITV in the group stages.

Nevertheless, ITV cannot complain too much. It will screen the Germany-Portugal tie and also show more group matches featuring Brazil and Argentina, including the tournament opener between the hosts and Croatia.

Of course, as a commercial broadcaster with advertising rights to sell, bumper primetime audiences are much more important for ITV.

England-Uruguay at 8pm on 19 June fits the bill perfectly, while England-Costa Rica will be aired to a tea-time audience at 5pm on 24 June.

The BBC was almost landed with a very late night when England-Italy was set to begin at 2am BST.

However, FIFA subsequently changed the kick-off time in the Amazonian city of Manaus to 6pm local time, 11pm BST.

Instead, ITV has the tough sell of a graveyard slot with the Ivory Coast-Japan tie kicking off at 2am.

Below are the full details of the television split, first on a group-by-group basis, then followed by a day-by-day guide

GROUP A

TV	Time/Date		Venue
ITV	9pm Thu 12 June	BRAZIL v CROATIA	Sao Paulo
ITV	5pm Fri 13 June	MEXICO v CAMEROON	Natal
BBC	8pm Tue 17 June	BRAZIL v MEXICO	Fortaleza
ITV	11pm Wed 18 June	CAMEROON v CROATIA	Manaus
ITV	9pm Mon 23 June	CAMEROON v BRAZIL	Brasilia
ITV	9pm Mon 23 June	CROATIA v MEXICO	Recife

GROUP B

TV	Time/Date		Venue
BBC	8pm Fri 13 June	SPAIN v NETHERLANDS	Salvador
ITV	11pm Fri 13 June	CHILE v AUSTRALIA	Cuiaba
BBC	8pm Wed 18 June	SPAIN v CHILE	Rio de Janeiro
ITV	5pm Wed 18 June	NETHERLANDS v AUSTRALIA	Porto Alegre
ITV	5pm Mon 23 June	AUSTRALIA v SPAIN	Curitiba
ITV	5pm Mon 23 June	NETHERLANDS v CHILE	Sao Paulo

GROUP C

TV	Time/Date		Venue
BBC	5pm Sat 14 June	COLOMBIA v GREECE	Belo Horizonte
ITV	2am Sun 15 June	IVORY COAST v JAPAN	Recife
BBC	5pm Thu 19 June	COLOMBIA v IVORY COAST	Brasilia
BBC	11pm Thu 19 June	JAPAN v GREECE	Natal
BBC	9pm Tue 24 June	JAPAN v COLOMBIA	Cuiaba
BBC	9pm Tue 24 June	GREECE v IVORY COAST	Fortaleza

GROUP D

TV	Time/Date		Venue
ITV	8pm Sat 14 June	URUGUAY v COSTA RICA	Fortaleza
BBC	11pm Sat 14 June	ENGLAND v ITALY	Manaus
ITV	8pm Thu 19 June	URUGUAY v ENGLAND	Sao Paulo
BBC	5pm Fri 20 June	ITALY v COSTA RICA	Recife
ITV	5pm Tue 24 June	ITALY v URUGUAY	Natal
ITV	5pm Tue 24 June	COSTA RICA v ENGLAND	Belo Horizonte

GROUP E

TV	Time/Date		Venue
ITV	5pm Sun 15 June	SWITZERLAND v ECUADOR	Brasilia
BBC	8pm Sun 15 June	FRANCE v HONDURAS	Porto Alegre
ITV	8pm Fri 20 June	SWITZERLAND v FRANCE	Salvador
ITV	11pm Fri 20 June	HONDURAS v ECUADOR	Curitiba
BBC	9pm Wed 25 June	HONDURAS v SWITZERLAND	Manaus
BBC	9pm Wed 25 June	ECUADOR v FRANCE	Rio de Janeiro

GROUP F

TV	Time/Date		Venue
BBC	11pm Sun 15 June	ARGENTINA v BOSNIA-HERZ	Rio de Janeiro
BBC	8pm Mon 16 June	IRAN v NIGERIA	Curitiba
ITV	5pm Sat 21 June	ARGENTINA v IRAN	Belo Horizonte
BBC	11pm Sat 21 June	NIGERIA v BOSNIA-HERZ	Cuiaba
ITV	5pm Wed 25 June	NIGERIA v ARGENTINA	Porto Alegre
ITV	5pm Wed 25 June	BOSNIA-HERZ v IRAN	Salvador

GROUP G

TV	Time/Date		Venue
ITV	5pm Mon 16 June	GERMANY v PORTUGAL	Salvador
BBC	11pm Mon 16 June	GHANA v UNITED STATES	Natal
BBC	8pm Sat 21 June	GERMANY v GHANA	Fortaleza
BBC	11pm Sun 22 June	UNITED STATES v PORTUGAL	Manaus
BBC	5pm Thu 26 June	UNITED STATES v GERMANY	Recife
BBC	5pm Thu 26 June	PORTUGAL v GHANA	Brasilia

GROUP H

TV	Time/Date		Venue
ITV	5pm Tue 17 June	BELGIUM v ALGERIA	Belo Horizonte
BBC	11pm Tue 17 June	RUSSIA v SOUTH KOREA	Cuiaba
BBC	5pm Sun 22 June	BELGIUM v RUSSIA	Rio de Janeiro
ITV	8pm Sun 22 June	SOUTH KOREA v ALGERIA	Porto Alegre
ITV	9pm Thu 26 June	SOUTH KOREA v BELGIUM	Sao Paulo
ITV	9pm Thu 26 June	ALGERIA v RUSSIA	Curitiba

DAY-BY-DAY GUIDE Key BBC ITV
Thu 12 June
(9pm) Brazil v Croatia
Fri 13 June  
(5pm) Mexico v Cameroon 
(8pm) Spain v Netherlands 
(11pm) Chile v Australia
Sat 14 June 
(5pm) Colombia v Greece 
(8pm) Uruguay v Costa Rica 
(11pm) England v Italy
Sun 15 June  
(2am) Ivory Coast v Japan 
(5pm) Switzerland v Ecuador 
(8pm) France v Honduras 
(11pm) Argentina v Bosnia-Herzegovina
Mon 16 June  
(5pm) Germany v Portugal
(8pm) Iran v Nigeria 
(11pm) Ghana v United States
Tue 17 June  
(5pm) Belgium v Algeria 
(8pm) Brazil v Mexico 
(11pm) Russia v South Korea
Wed 18 June 
(5pm) Netherlands v Australia 
(8pm) Spain v Chile
(11pm) Cameroon v Croatia
Thu 19 June 
(5pm) Colombia v Ivory Coast
(8pm) Uruguay v England 
(11pm) Japan v Greece
Fri 20 June 
(5pm) Italy v Costa Rica 
(8pm) Switzerland v France 
(11pm) Honduras v Ecuador
Sat 21 June 
(5pm) Argentina v Iran 
(8pm) Germany v Ghana 
(11pm) Nigeria v Bosnia-Herzegovina
Sun 22 June 
(5pm) Belgium v Russia
(8pm) South Korea v Algeria 
(11pm) United States v Portugal 
Mon 23 June 
(5pm) Australia v Spain, Netherlands v Chile
(9pm) Cameroon v Brazil, Croatia v Mexico
Tue 24 June 
(5pm) Italy v Uruguay, Costa Rica v England
(9pm) Japan v Colombia, Greece v Ivory Coast
Wed 25 June 
(5pm) Nigeria v Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina v Iran 
(9pm) Honduras v Switzerland, Ecuador v France
Thu 26 June 
(5pm) United States v Germany, Portugal v Ghana 
(9pm) South Korea v Belgium, Algeria v Russia