Premier League Reports Rise In Global Audience Figures

16 Jul 2019 | Rory Squires

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The Premier League has reported that cumulative audiences for its live programming rose 11 per cent to 1.35 billion globally for the 2018/19 season.

The figures are contained in a new report compiled by the Premier League in partnership with independent research agency Nielsen Sports through which broadcast and audience information has been gathered from individual markets.

The title race between Manchester City and Liverpool led to a cumulative global audience of 3.2 billion for all programming between August 2018 and May 2019, an increase of six per cent on the previous season.

The Premier League said growth was driven by new free-to-air coverage in several countries, notably Brazil and South Africa, while there was also a continued increase in live audiences in the UK.

In 2018/19, the competition was shown in a total of 188 of the 193 countries recognised by the United Nations. The Premier League said only Afghanistan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Cuba were without coverage last season.

A total of 262,102 hours of Premier League coverage was broadcast around the world last season, reaching 1.03 billion homes for all broadcast types. The household reach for live coverage only was 978 million homes.

The data compiled by the Premier League and Nielsen Sports relates to standard in-home viewing only and excludes out-of-home and mobile device viewing.