A huge 9 million people watched British tennis star Emma Raducanu win the US Open Final on Channel 4 on Saturday.
The broadcaster gained last-minute sharing rights to show the Grand Slam Final on 11 September on free-to-air TV after striking a deal with Amazon Prime, the rights holder.
The programme started at 8pm and went on until 11.45pm with the award ceremony taking place just after 11pm after 18-year-old qualifier Raducanu won her first Grand Slam in straight sets.
According to BARB overnight figures, the audience peaked at 9.0 million people at 11.10pm.
The share all TV audience viewing peaked at 63.4% at around that time measured in 15-minute intervals.
The total coverage of the build-up, match and trophy ceremony averaged 5.9m and 39.9% share of viewing which was six times the slot average, a Channel 4 spokesperson told Mediatel News.
Channel 4 reported an 18.0% share across the day, its best day since August 29 2012 when the London Paralympics launched (a 19.6% share).
Amazon Prime agreed to share the rights with Channel 4 and reported it was the most streamed tennis match on Prime Video ever.
Channel 4’s highest ever audience is 13.8 million, for the drama series A Woman of Substance in 1985.
