TV Overnights: BBC One’s World Cup final beats ITV1 4 to 1

BBC One’s coverage of the World Cup final between Spain and Holland pulled in more than four times as many viewers as ITV1 last night.

The rival terrestrial channels both secured the rights to show last night’s final, which saw Spain lift the FIFA World Cup for the first time after Andres Iniesta’s 116th-minute goal banked a 1-0 victory for the European champions over the Netherlands.

However, viewers were loyal to BBC One’s Match of the Day Live coverage, presented by Gary Lineker.  The full programme secured over 11.5 million average viewers and a 44.9% audience share between 6.30pm and 10pm, peaking with an impressive 15.8 million viewers at 9.45pm.

By comparison, ITV1’s coverage from Soccer City in Johannesburg, with ex-BBC presenter Adrian Chiles, pulled in 2.6 million average viewers and a 10.4% share.  The programme’s peak audience matched BBC One’s 9.45pm slot, although sat at a much lower 3.4 million viewers.

Football fans are perhaps a little disgruntled with ITV1’s sporting record.  For starters, viewers watching England’s first World Cup game against the USA on ITV1 HD would have missed Steven Gerrard’s goal in the 4th minute of the match after a “human error” meant that they were watching a car advert instead.

The broadcaster offered an “unreserved apology” to the viewers affected by the interruption on its high-definition channel, although this is a the second blunder of its kind for ITV1.  It will have reminded viewers of the commercial broadcaster’s “inexcusable” ad break last year, which caused millions to miss Everton’s 118th-minute winning goal against Liverpool, not to mention ITV1’s disastrous Histon-Leeds tie coverage.

Whatever the motive, BBC One’s ratings dominated the terrestrial schedule yesterday, and not only during the game.  The channel secured the peak audience all day, with the exception of a 45-minute slot at 10.45am, which saw BBC Two briefly share the limelight.

The British Grand Prix Live was the biggest pull of the day, aside from the football.  More than 6.6 million peak viewers tuned in to see the eventful race, which saw Mark Webber crowned the Silverstone winner.  The 10th round pulled in 4.6 million viewers and a 40.4% share from 12.10pm to 3.40pm.

It was a similar story on Saturday, this time with the Formula 1 qualifier picking up a high of 3.2 million viewers during the early-afternoon slot.  BBC One’s Live Golf coverage of the Scottish Open also proved popular, pulling in 1.6 million peak viewers from 2.30pm onwards.

However, ITV1 dominated the evening slot with the third place World Cup play-off, which attracted more than 5 million average viewers and a 26.7% share between 7pm and 9.30pm.

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 and key multi-channel stations.