England Win On BBC1

England’s gripping win against Ecuador brought in a massive 16.1 million adult viewers for BBC1 yesterday afternoon, as Beckham’s battlers overcame the South Americans.

An average of 12.6 million adults watched the game (giving BBC1 a 74% audience share) and were treated to a tense affair which England did just enough to win. An average of 3.6 million ABC1 Men watched the match (an 83% audience share), reaching a peak of 4.5 million.

Following on straight after the match on BBC1 was coverage of the Queen’s 80th birthday event Children’s Party in the Palace, which received complaints from more than 100 viewers after it began with a spoof news flash claiming a major incident had occurred at Buckingham Palace. The news flash was only revealed to be a joke when Ronnie Corbet was shown as one of the Queen’s butlers saying that her handbag had been stolen.

The other big viewing figures for last night were for the match to decide who would play England in the quarter finals. Portugal v Holland on ITV1 gained peak figures of 9.9 million adult viewers, who saw a flurry of red and yellow cards and a cracking goal with the Portuguese running out 1-0 winners. An average of 8.4 million adults watched the game (a 38% audience share), whilst an average of 2.7 million ABC1 Men (a 53% share) saw the game finish with just nine men on each side.

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries on BBC1 at eight o’clock had the best viewing figures outside of the World Cup coverage with an average of 4.6 million adult viewers (a 21% share) absorbing themselves in the crime fighting drama.

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.

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com