England Game Brings Turkish Delight To Sky Sports

A peak of almost 4.3 million viewers tuned in to Sky Sports One on Saturday night to watch live coverage of England’s goalless draw against Turkey.

Audiences for the crucial Euro 2004 qualifying match, which saw England secure a place in the finals of next year’s tournament, averaged 3.9 million and provided Sky Sports with what is understood to be its biggest ever multichannel audience.

ITV’s replay of the game attracted an average of 4.5 million viewers and secured a 23.1% share of the available audience between 9.25pm and 11.15pm. Ratings peaked at 5.3 million as football fans tuned in to relive David Beckham’s embarrassing penalty miss.

Large numbers of people are thought to have watched the match live in pubs across the country and estimates suggest that the total live audience for the game could exceed 12 million. Audiences were no doubt boosted by the publicity surrounding Rio Ferdinand’s exclusion from the squad and subsequent strike threats from the rest of the team.

BSkyB is believed to have paid £3 million for the exclusive rights to the final match in the European Championship qualifying group. However, the satellite broadcaster made the delayed rights available to terrestrial channels following a plea from the Government’s Sports Minister, Richard Caborn, over security concerns surrounding the match (see BSkyB Allows Terrestrial Channel To Show England Match).

The game added to a busy sporting weekend on the station, which also showed seven rugby world cup matches on ITV1 and ITV2, as well as the culmination of the Formula One season with the Japanese Grand Prix.

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com BSkyB: 0207 705 3000 www.sky.com

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