Airing the World Cup over November and December for the first time ever is playing havoc not just with the Premiership calendar, but with the UK’s TV ad market, too.
Moving the tournament from the summer to mitigate the extreme heat of the host country, Qatar, has dented ITV’s advertising revenues for the year to date.
First Russia in 2018 and now Qatar: the World Cup appears to be on a tour of the world’s least savoury destinations. There has been widespread condemnation of the exploitation and deaths of migrant construction workers – thought to number several thousand – in building new stadiums for the tournament and other major projects, and of Qatar’s criminalisation of same-sex sexual activity and severe restrictions on women’s rights.
