A spreading contagion

I'm glad that ITV has been denied the right to use product placement in their programmes by the government - it's justice for their terrible treatment of sport, particularly football. After Fulham's rout by Manchester United in the FA Cup, I, who had tuned in midway through the second half after listening to superior commentary on the radio, only got to see Ji-Sung Park's goal in live play. So, I expected to see a review of the second half goals after the match finished (ITV never shows first half goals unlike the BBC). But after the ad break, we had a quick medley of all four goals from one angle each - blink and you'd miss them - before Steve Ryder solicited brief opinions from his studio guests before saying that a proper review of the match had been shunted off to the highlights package. And then he was gone, after less than two minutes. It's a disgrace. This was a normal football game that did not extend beyond normal injury time, yet ITV, to pack out its advert break, denigrates post-match discussion.
And last night, there was not even a highlights show of the Champions League action on ITV1 when the games weren't even shown on the main channel, but in a logic-deying move, the highlights were available the night before when they showed the Liverpool-Real Madrid match in its entirety and showed the goals from the Chelsea-Juventus tie in the post-match review. I could understand if no English team as playing last night, but it was the defending European champions Manchester United plus Arsenal. The Champions League has been on ITV since its inception, but all that experience since seems to count for nothing - quality schedulers must be bleeding away from ITV as its future is thrown into increasing doubt. What else can explain a cock-up on a programme they have had for so long?
So long may ITV be forbidden to use product placement - with less revenue they'll be able to bid for less sport that they can mess up.