England’s Euro 2024 final defeat to Spain was watched by the BBC and ITV with 23.8 million viewers, the highest-rated TV broadcast of the year.
The BBC’s audience peaked at 17.8 million, while ITV’s coverage – which was praised by critics in The Guardian and featured an interview with the Prime Minister – peaked at 6 million.
While broadcasters will be happy with such an audience, it is still a significant drop from the 31 million viewers who watched England lose to Italy in the Euro 2020 final. There was also only a slight rise in attendance for Wednesday night’s semi-final between England and the Netherlands.
The overnight data provided by Digital-i does not include the number of people watching the game in pubs or fan zones, which may have affected the headline figures of people gathering at home to watch the final.
Broadcasters are also expected to reveal their viewing figures on iPlayer and ITV Player, which are not always available overnight.
The high ratings for the entire event are a win for traditional broadcasters, who have found that live sports can give them an edge over streaming services. The European Championships are one of Britain’s “crown jewels” sporting events, along with the Football World Cup, Wimbledon and the Olympics, which are required by law to be broadcast on free-to-air channels. By capturing England’s semi-final match, ITV’s financial position will be materially improved.
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Not everyone in the UK watches football on Sunday night, especially in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Love Island was watched by 692,000 people on ITV2, an episode of BBC2’s Turkey Detective attracted 467,000 viewers, while 452,000 Brits decided they couldn’t stand watching England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford scream at a defender and switched to Channel 4’s 1997 film Titanic.
