ITV celebrate England World Cup ratings
England historic World Cup penalty shootout with Colombia win peaks with 24.4m.
The ITV Sport coverage, which broadcast across ITV in England, Channel Island and Wales, UTV in Northern Ireland and STV across Scotland saw a 1 minute peak of 24.4 million and an 81% audience share. Viewers tuned to the network to watch England’s dramatic penalty shootout victory on Tuesday night, the 3rd of July.
The ratings are the highest TV audience peak since the Olympic Closing ceremony in 2012. The audience hit a 1 minute peak of 24.4 million viewers at 9.52pm when England scored the winning penalty. This is the highest peak audience for live sport since England played Portugal in the 2004 Euros which pulled in a peak of 24.7 million at the time.
The match had 3.3 million simulcast requests on ITV Hub, the Hub’s biggest ever number for live programming the broadcaster note. The ITV, STV and UTV broadcast coverage from 6.15pm until 10.34pm was watched by 16.5 million with an audience share of 69% of viewing.
Between kick off at 7pm and the winning penalty an average audience of 20.2 million viewers were watching, a 77% share of viewing, the sports coverage also boosted the ITV National News programme which pulled in 3.9 million, with BBC News drawing 3.3 million, a rare second place for the beeb which usually wins the ‘Ten O’Clock’ news battle.
The afternoon broadcast on BBC One of Sweden v Switzerland saw an average audience of 3.1 million for the channel while Wimbledon tennis coverage drew 1.7 million.
