Then last night, at 9.40pm, parent network Channel 4 showed Predator. Again, nothing particularly odd about that. It's a fun actioner, and they needed to throw something disposable on against the all-conquering might of the BAFTA film awards over on BBC1.

Except...

During the first ad break in Predator, just before 10pm, there was an advert. A very lengthy advert for British games firm Rebellion's new PS3 and XBox version of Aliens vs Predator, which was released on Friday.

The ad took up pretty much the entire slot, and was bookended by a specially rendered C4 logo, done out in the thermal imaging of the Predator's eye view, with THIS IS AN ADVERTISMENT in large white print below it.

Now, scheduling films on TV to cash in on high profile other films or TV shows is nothing new. C4 have a habit of sticking on one of the Peter Cushing films whenever Dr Who is due to start back on BBC One, for example. But did they really schedule these two films to cash in on the release of a video game? Or were they swayed by the fact there was presumably a shitload of advertising cash coming their way for that break TO schedule the films? An ad that length, in prime time, won't have been cheap for Rebellion and publishers SEGA, and if they had to tag that Predator-ised logo on the front, there must have been some hoop jumping along the way.

So is this an modern example of TV scheduling being dictated by entirely commercial requirements? Or just an almighty coincidence? Horseferry Road, over to you...