Just 2.8 million people, or 19 percent of the total audience share, watched the Saturday evening programme on the terrestrial network, nearly half the viewing figure achieved when The Premiership was aired at the controversial earlier time of 7pm.
The later slot also failed to beat the audience figure previously achieved by Match of the Day which last season averaged 3.6m, or 25 percent of the audience share.
ITV moved the programme to 10.30pm in an attempt to boost ratings to six million but the recent news will spark questions about just how much sports rights are worth. The likelihood that ITV will recover the £183m ($264m/B293m) paid for the rights to air The Premiership over the next three years looks increasingly slim.
