ITV cock-up again

I didn't comment on it yesterday because I was waiting for the outcome of ITV's response. Michael Grade publicly apologised for the mistake which wasn't his fault (he's been putting out fires since he joined from the BBC). But ITV sport showed 118 minutes of barren football and, seeing penalties imminent, tried to sneak an ad break in, unfortunately them, just as the winning goal was scored. Steve Ryder claimed it was a technical error, but that would never have happened on the Beeb (the only time the Beeb lost coverage was when their Austrian provider, giving coverage to almost all Europe during Euro 2008, failed as a massive flash thunderstorm hit Vienna and even then they had recourse to their sister Radio Five).
To try and emphasise it was a technical error rather then crafty scheduling, as they committed the latter with Formula One Grand Prix in the climatic race of that season, an ad for a music album appeared for two seconds before going back to the football. This undermines Grade's apology that it was an automatic advert scheduler in times of normal programming - so why did it recur within a minute, if panicked ITV execs had permanently restored live feed?
ITV not only missed the goal, but their cameras also missed the red card handed out, we only being informed of the Liverpool player's dismissal through commentary, with a belated playback of the cards being shown. Those Leeds fans who grabbed the pitchside microphones after the sceond round of matches and bellowed "ITV are shit," were so right.
This has not just been an embarrassment for ITV but the Football Association too. It was the FA who threw a hissy fit when the BBC expressed the most mildest of criticism of the England team during the 2006 World Cup and so awarded the FA rights to ITV as punishment to the BBC. ITV has committed blunder after blunder in this season's FA Cup. The BBC will almost certainly regain the rights when they next come up for renewal.