World Cup Continues To Bring In Viewers

World Cup fever shows no signs of abating as last night’s match up between Italy and Ghana, although not one of the showpiece games of the tournament, brought in 5.5 million adult viewers, a 28.9% audience share.

ABC1 Men are clearly loving the chance to see so much football, as 1.8 million of them (44%) settled down to watch the Azzurri take on the Black Stars, with the Italians running out eventual winners, 2-0.

But kicking off at the same time as BBC1’s soccer coverage, Coronation Street on ITV1 managed 7.3 million adult viewers in its half-hour slot, a 44.8% audience share, proving that not all inhabitants of this fair isle are obsessed with the beautiful game.

The five o’clock match, also on BBC1, between the Czech Republic and the USA brought in 3.5 million adult viewers (a 30.6% audience share) who no doubt delighted in the skills shown by the new Arsenal signing, Tomas Rosicky. 52% of ABC1 Men (1.1 million) watched the Czechs run out 3-0 winners.

Meanwhile, Channel 4 are showing two Deal or No Deal episodes an evening during the World Cup, with Noel Edmonds going head to head with the eight o’clock matches in a classic edition of the nail biting quiz show. Unfortunately, with 2.4 million adults watching (a 12.1% audience share) Noel was no match for Motty and Lawro on the BBC.

Emmerdale performed well in its World Cup 10 o’clock slot, giving ITV1 4.5 million adult viewers, an audience share of 23.5%, while Home And Away was Channel Five’s best performing show of the evening, with 1.6 million adult viewers, a 12% audience share at the time.

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