Top Ten updated
As promised, the latest audience ratings. The headlines are that England v Sweden is top of the chart for audience numbers though England v Paraguay is hanging in there with the highest market share. So first the top 10 and then some comments afterwards...
1. ITV England v Sweden 19.9m (70% peak share)
2. Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ England v Ecuador 18.2m (81% share)
3. ITV England v Trinidad & Tobago 16.5m (76% share)
4. Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ England v Paraguay 12.8m (84% share)
5= Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Argentina v Mexico 10.4m
5= ITV Netherlands v Portugal 10.4m
7. Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Brazil v Croatia 10.0m
8. ITV Brazil v Australia 9.3m
9= Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Germany v Poland 9.0m
9= ITV Netherlands v Argentina 9.0m
Notes:
(1) These are BARB overnight 15' peak audience figures - in other words, they show the average audience in the most-watched quarter-of-an-hour of each game.
(2) Audience levels strongly reflect kick-off time, so the England games are the only non-8pm kick-offs in the Top 10. The Paraguay game was at 2pm, Ecuador was at 4pm and Trinidad was at 5pm with Sweden at 8pm.
(3) There's a lot of viewing away from home, especially at weekends, which isn't measured in these figures. Our research suggests as many as 25% of 16-to-24 year-olds watch in pubs or public places.
(4) We'd expect England v Portugal to make the Top 3 obviously, but a Saturday afternoon showing means it may not beat the same fixture in Euro 2004 when it was in peaktime on a weekday evening on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One and went to a penalty shoot-out --- watched by nearly 25m!
(5) Although the Top 10 is split 5-5, the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ continues to have an audience lead over ITV in programming averages across the tournament.
