ITV Fails To Dominate With UEFA League

ITV’s football coverage failed to dominate last night’s television schedules, despite two high-profile international games featuring English clubs airing across ITV1 and 2.

The games, Manchester United Vs Lille on ITV1 and ITV2’s Sparta Prague Vs Arsenal, drew average audiences of 4.4 million and 552,000 respectively, but were beaten by non-sporting offerings by both the BBC and Sky One.

ITV1’s coverage peaked with 5.6 million viewers between 9:45-10pm, securing a 26.76% share, but it was BBC ratings stalwarts Eastenders and Holby City which produced the best viewing figures last night, scoring average audiences of 8.9 million and 6.5 million respectively.

BBC One’s drama series Love Soup went head to head with ITV’s final hour of sport, drawing just under 4 million viewers as ITV1 wavered between 2.9 and 5.5 million.

Meanwhile, ITV2 saw its largest audience between 8pm and 8:15, as 801,000 multichannel viewers tuned in at the beginning of the international clash. An average of 552,000 football fans saw Arsenal win their match 2-0, as Thierry Henry scored both goals to break Ian Wright’s club scoring record.

Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk‘s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks, ITV2 and Sky One.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk