C5 nets football audience victory
Channel 5 is claiming a World Cup victory after achieving a peak 68 per cent share of viewing in Scotland during coverage of the Scotland v Latvia qualifier match.
Sources close to the station claim the undisclosed cost of securing the fixture, signed up by C5’s Dawn Airey on the Monday preceding the game, was more than matched by the additional ad revenue the coverage attracted.
The viewing audience peaked at 2.9 million across the UK, compared with C5’s usual 300,000 audience for the Saturday afternoon time slot, which works out as a 19 per cent share of viewing.
BSkyB’s coverage of the mid-evening England v Italy cliffhanger achieved a BARB audience of 4 million viewers. But that figure does not take into account the high level of pub-based viewing for the game.
ITV’s delayed broadcast of the fixture attracted an average of 7 million viewers across its timeslot. Despite the respectable viewing figures for ITV, ratings for the delayed broadcast trailed those achieved so far this season by ITV’s exclusive live coverage of European Champions League soccer.
