Ashes Win Boosts Sky And Five
Sky Sports and terrestrial broadcaster Five both registered impressive viewing figures for their Ashes cricket coverage after England sealed a 2-1 series victory at The Oval in the 5th and final Test.
Nearly 2m viewers watched Graeme Swann take Michael Hussey’s wicket to win the Ashes for England on Sky Sports 1 with the programme attracting an audience of 1.92m viewers, a 14% share of the multichannel audience, between 5.45pm and 6pm.
Nine hours of Ashes coverage on Sky Sports 1 averaged 856,000 viewers, 8% of the multichannel audience, between 10am and 7pm.
It was also a good day for Five, whose highlights show, Cricket on Five, was watched by a record 2m viewers, 10% of the audience, between 7.15pm and 8pm, the channel’s highest-rating show of the night.
However, Sky’s audience was inevitably a fraction of the peak of 7.4m viewers who saw England’s last Ashes triumph in 2005, which was available free-to-air on Channel 4.
On the final afternoon of the 2005 Ashes, an average of 4.7m viewers were watching Channel 4’s live coverage between 1.15pm and 7pm.
The previous day’s play on Saturday averaged 743,000 viewers, a 9% multichannel share, between 10am and 7pm on Sky Sports 1, peaking with 1.03m between 6.15pm and 6.30pm. Saturday’s Five highlights show had 1.1m viewers, a 5% share.
Friday’s live Sky coverage had 525,000 viewers, a 7% share, between 10am and 7pm, peaking with 1.02m between 5pm and 5.15pm. The Five highlights show had 1.6m viewers, 8% of the audience, again the channel’s highest-rating show of the day.
