England’s Defeat Of Argentina Draws 12 Million

Almost 12 million people tuned in to the BBC1 to watch England’s historic defeat of Argentina in the first round of the World Cup finals last Friday.

The game, which kicked off at 12.30pm and saw England beat Argentina 1:0, secured a massive 83.4% share of viewing, with audiences peaking at just over 13 million during the second half of the match. According to the BBC viewing figures for the coverage as a whole, which ran from 11.50am to 2.45pm, were five times higher than those normally achieved at that time.

England’s victory proved far from fleeting and a further 4.3 million viewers tuned into ITV1 later that evening to watch an as-live repeat of the match. ITV1’s coverage, which ran from 8pm until 9.30pm, secured a 20% share of viewing, with audiences peaking at just under 5 million in the dying stages of the game.

Broadcasters had been concerned that viewing figures for this summer’s tournament would be lower than in the past due to the anti-social kick-off times of most of the games. However, more than 12.5 million people tuned into ITV1 on Sunday to watch England’s World Cup 2002 debut against Sweden (see England Versus Sweden Attracts Over 12 Million To ITV), just 200,000 fewer than watched England’s 5-1 defeat of Germany, which drew an average audience of 12.7 million when it was shown on BBC1 last September (see Football Nets 14.6m Viewers).

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

Recent Television stories from NewsLine: Party At The Palace Draws 12.3 Million Viewers England Versus Sweden Attracts Over 12 Million To ITV Feature: RI:SE Fails To Shine For Channel 4

Subscribers can access ten years of media news and analysis in the Archive