FA Cup 5th Round Ties Pull Big Audiences
The FA Cup competition had a huge boost after the viewing figures for the weekend’s action was revealed.
The audience share of 33% for Manchester United’s struggle against non-league Crawley Town, actually exceeded that of Arsenal’s Champions League win against Barcelona – which received 31% of the audience.
Manchester United v Crawley – shown on ITV1 – drew in almost 8.5 million viewers at its peak, while the following day, Manchester City v Notts County attracted over 4 million viewers to the screen.
The viewership on ESPN for the FA Cup round also showed impressively; Everton v Chelsea and Leyton Orient v Arsenal both received peak audiences of over 800,000.
Sponsorship rights for the FA Cup are still available for next year after current title sponsor E.ON announced it would not be renewing its deal after it expires at the end of the season.
