Almost 25 Million Watch Spectacular England Victory
Almost 25 million football fans tuned in to BBC One last night to watch a triumphant England secure a place in the Euro 2004 semi-finals after trouncing home nation Portugal in a sensational 2:1 victory.
Unofficial overnight figures from BARB show that a peak of 24.7 million viewers stayed at home to watch the historic game, which saw Sol Campbell score a spectacular aerial goal in the dying minutes of the game that is being hailed as England’s finest performance.
Audiences for the euphoric quarter final clash averaged just over 20.6 million, securing an impressive 73.6% share of the available audience for BBC One. England appeared undeterred by the loss of teenage prodigy Wayne Rooney and went on to humiliate their opponents with a mix of style and effortless prowess.
Once again the early evening kick-off time of the crucial match meant that millions of football fans (including the whole of MediaTel Group) would have crammed in pubs and bars across the country in anticipation of England’s glorious win. However, this so-called ‘lager-in-hand’ viewing is not measured by BARB and, fortunately, neither is ‘lager consumption’.
Audiences for last night’s match were easily the highest of the tournament so far, beating England’s Euro 2004 debut against France, which attracted an average of 17.6 million sports fans to ITV1 and generated around £6 million in advertising revenue for the broadcaster (see More Than 20 Million Watch England’s Victory Over Croatia).
Last night’s viewing figures were also higher than England’s historic clash against arch-rivals Argentina in the 1998 World Cup Finals, which attracted a peak of more than 23 million to ITV back in 1998 (see England’s Epic Defeat Gains 26m Viewers).
Euro 2004 is proving to be the most popular football tournament since the 1998 World Cup and audiences are on average 8% up on Euro 2000. However, research carried out by Carat shows that viewing varies widely from region to region and is heaviest in the North of England (see More Than 70% Of UK Watched England Versus France).
BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk
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