England Rugby Victory Draws Record Audience To ITV1

ITV1 attracted its biggest audience of the Rugby World Cup so far on Sunday with a peak of 7.1 million viewers tuning in to watch England’s closely fought quarter final victory over Wales.

Audiences for the game, which saw England secure victory by 28 points to 17, averaged 6 million and provided ITV1 with a 46.3% share of the available audience between 10am and 12pm.

This is the highest figure for any rugby union match in the UK this year and surpasses the previous 5.3 million average audience for England’s crucial group stage victory over South Africa three weeks ago (see Over 6 Million Tune Into ITV1 For England Rugby).

A spokesman for ITV said: “We’re delighted with the figures which reflect what nail-biting encounter the match was with the audience understandably staying with the action until the final whistle. Interest in the tournament has grown as we anticipated and wešre now set-up for a fantastic weekend with both semi-finals live on ITV1.”

Meanwhile, Scotland’s defeat at the hands of world champions Australia was seen by an average of 3.1 million viewers and an average of 2.6 million rugby fans tuned in to see Ireland’s thrashing by France. New Zealand’s impressive win over South Africa was seen by an average 710,000 on ITV2.

ITV claims that nearly 85 million people in total have now tuned into its coverage of the Rugby World Cup since the tournament began over four weeks ago. These figures include live on ITV1 and ITV2 and highlights on ITV1, ITV2 and the ITV News Channel.

Earlier this year Granada Enterprises secured foreign exchange company Travelex as the exclusive broadcast and online sponsor of ITV1’s coverage of this year’s Rugby World Cup. The integrated deal incorporates all aspects of ITV1’s coverage of the tournament including live matches, highlights, promotional marketing and the soon to be launched Rugby World Cup website (see Granada Secures Travelex For ITV Rugby Sponsorship).

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com

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