ITV Companies Benefit From Soccer

According to a report in the Guardian today, Central Television and LWT have both benefitted greatly from the regional football agreements they set up following ITV’s failure to win the Premier League deal. Average ratings for a game on both channels were 740,000 – 50% higher than those on Sky. Tyne Tees is also faring well from soccer coverage scoring average ratings of 376,000 (13.5%).

The report, which examines whether the Football Association is really benefitting from its deal with BSkyB, points out that in 1991-92 ITV’s average audience for 1st Division matches was more than 6 million compared with Sky’s average of 525,000.