ITV’s International Football scores 8.2 million viewers

ITV1’s football coverage managed to pull in an impressive 8.2 million peak viewers last night, despite last weeks disastrous technical hitch during Everton v Liverpool’s FA cup 4th round replay (see Is ITV’s FA Cup coverage jinxed?).

More than 6.7 million average viewers tuned in to see Spain beat England 2 – 0, securing ITV with a significant 30% audience share between 8.30pm and 11.10pm.

ITV stole the limelight for most of the evening, with its flagship soaps also pulling in high ratings prior to the game – Emmerdale attracted 7.3 million average viewers while Coronation Street picked up 9.5 million.

BBC One’s popular school drama, Waterloo Road, managed to pinch the peak audience between 8.15pm and 8.45pm with 4.3 million viewers but its new David Attenborough documentary, Nature’s Great Events, failed to impress with 3.6 million average viewers between 9pm and 10pm.

At the same time, Channel 4’s long-running Grand Designs, with Kevin McCloud, attracted 3.9 million peak viewers and a 14.3% average audience share.

Meanwhile, the second episode of the new Minder re-make, with Shane Ritchie and Rik Mayall, peaked with 1.9 million viewers – securing a 7.1% average audience share for Five.

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 and key multi-channel stations.

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk Five: 020 7550 5555 www.five.tv Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com