TV Overnights: Euro 2012 owns the weekend
…despite a challenge from a plethora of detective show repeats. While the coverage of the Euro 2012 tournament might be overwhelming for some, it’s clear that many people are revelling in the excitement: the matches over the weekend all brought large audiences to their respective channels with Friday’s England victory peaking at 15.4 million.
Friday
Friday night brought the Euro 2012 game everyone has been waiting for. It’s all well and good feigning interest in debt-racked countries playing against each other but it’s the England team’s fortunes that the country’s viewers are really interested in. BBC One secured the rights to the match, with analysis of the first Group D match of the night starting at 7pm. After a full hour of nattering the game kicked off at 8pm, with the entire BBC presentation and game pulling in an average audience of 10.9 million. As usual it was the final fifteen minutes which netted the most attention with audiences peaking at 15.4 million, as Danny Welbeck scored a crucial goal and secured a win for England. This peak saw the channel receive a 58% audience share, up from the average share of 45% for the whole programme.
Earlier on ITV1, Ukraine v France (coverage commenced at 4:30pm) faced the wrath of the weather gods as Donbass Arena was the scene of some extreme meteorological conditions. The players were called off the pitch due to lightning strike fears with the game resuming at 6pm when the biblical weather passed. An average audience of 4.7 million viewers watched the entire extended coverage and the actual game with interest peaking at 6.9 million at 7:15pm. The match, which ended in a 2-0 victory from France, secured an average audience share of 23%.
ITV1 didn’t fare so well during the big match having pulled double Coronation Street from their Friday schedule. The sacrificial lamb came in the shape of Emmerdale (8:30pm) which saw a significant fall in viewers, with only 3.5 million (a 12.5% share) watching the soap as a result of the match. Tactics only got more drastic after that; a repeat of Lewis (9pm) from 2009 failed to pull the crowd away from the England game and over to ITV1 (even with Joanna Lumley guest starring as an ageing rocker). 1.7 million viewers tuned in to see the national treasure exploit all the rock clichés she could muster.
Saturday
Milking it a bit at this stage; just a few weeks after commandeering the Thames for her Jubilee celebrations, HRH felt the need to let everyone know about her birthday too. The 86 year old was watched by 3 million viewers for the annual spectacle on Saturday morning, with Trooping the Colour: The Queen’s Birthday Parade (BBC One, 10:30am) netting an 11% audience share.
Coverage of the big Euro 2012 game of the day kicked off at 7:15 pm on BBC One, as the Czech Republic faced off against Poland as Group A played its final day. The match actually began at 7:45pm, live from the Municipal Stadium in Poland. Despite being on their home turf the Poland team couldn’t fight off the Czech attack with the game seeing them fall out of the tournament with a 1-0 result. An average audience of 5.7 million viewers watched all of the coverage with viewers peaking at 6.9 million just before half time.
Hidden out of view from the majority of the public was the tournament’s equivalent of the ugly little sister: the Greece v Russia game was played at the same time as the other Group A match and suffered considerably for the scheduling placement. Perhaps it was Lineker’s absence (or perhaps presenters Manish Bhasin’s presence) that put people off but the match only attracted an audience of 864,000 viewers, with a peak of 1.6 million. The match, which saw Russia crash out of the tournament due to a 1-0 defeat, attracted a 4% average audience share.
Once again ITV1 went all-out to combat the football, with Saturday’s special weapon coming in the shape of yet another repeat. While the Poland game didn’t attract as much attention as the big match on Friday, an episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot (8pm) from 2008 still didn’t provide a sufficient alternative to pull the football detractors towards ITV1. The detective’s case, which involved keeping a close eye on the goings on in a girl’s Academy, was watched by 2 million viewers (a 9.3% share).
Sunday
Before the football took over screens for another evening there was a chance to catch the Tennis: Queen’s Finals at 2pm on BBC One. It seemed David Nalbandian was a victim of the pressure mounted on himself and had a moment of ‘frustration’ which ended with an injured line judge. 1 million viewers tuned in to see the Argentinian kick an advertising board which set off a chain of events that lead to the judge’s grazed leg. This resulted in Nalbandian being disqualified with the match going to Croatia’s Marin Cilic despite audible disapproval from the crowd.
Portugal v Holland on ITV1 was a much more civil affair, with Ronaldo proving his worth. The game kicked off at 7:45pm, picking up an average audience of 6.8 million viewers. Ronaldo scored two goals with van der Vaart only managing one, resulting in the Netherlands exit from the competition. Viewers peaked at 9pm with 8.9 million tuning in.
It was quite a different story over on ITV4. Denmark and Germany clashed at Arena Lviv in Ukraine at the same time but only brought in 944,000 viewers to the digital channel. Germany strolled through the game, securing a 2-1 victory and progressing to the next round. The game peaked at 1.5 million viewers towards the end, grabbing a fifteen minute audience share of 6% for the channel.
BBC One held strong against Sunday’s Euro action with trusty favourites holding their own against the ubiquitous coverage. The first weapon in their arsenal came in the form of Fiona Bruce and the lovely old people on Antiques Roadshow (BBC One, 7:30pm). Going up against the start of both matches, the genteel programme was watched by an impressive 5 million viewers (a 21% share). This was followed by a 1.5 hour long Just For Men advert, under the guise of a repeat of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (8:30pm). The episode saw the Inspector (him of eyebrows darker than a collapsing sun) attempting to solve the murder of a little girl (are there many left at this stage?) and was watched by 4 million viewers.
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.