BBC Attracts 17.9m Wc Final Viewers
The BBC has won the battle of the World Cup Final viewing figures with a five to one share of the audience over ITV.
The BBC1/HD coverage of Spain’s triumph over the Netherlands peaked at 17.9m whilst ITV1/HD’s peak was 3.8m.
Adrian Chiles has won critical plaudits after jumping ship to anchor ITV’s World Cup 2010 coverage, but he could not prevent the advertisement free BBC coverage from taking an overwhelming amount of viewers.
Live coverage of Spain’s 1-0 victory in extra time averaged 18.4m viewers and a 66% audience share across the channels between 7.30pm and 10.05pm.
However, the BBC’s average audience was 15.1m (54%), compared with 3.3m (12%) for ITV.
Meanwhile, the BBC’s coverage of the British Grand Prix drew a peak audience of 6.8m, up one million on 2009.
