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29 October 2014
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01.07.02

SPORT


Brazilian World Cup triumph - four times as many viewers come to the BBC

Following the thrilling climax to the 2002 World Cup in which Brazil swept Germany aside to lift the trophy for an unprecedented fifth time, once again four times as many viewers came to the BBC to witness all the live action, rather than ITV.


· The match averaged a strong 10 million, 62% share and an 11.6m peak on BBC ONE (1200- 1345), while ITV's match average was 2.3m, 15% share and a 2.5m peak.
· The whole programme, including build-up and post match analysis (1100-1430), averaged 7.9m, 57% share and an 11.6m peak on BBC ONE, while ITV averaged at 1.9m, 14% share and a 2.5m peak.
· This was the highest BBC ONE audience for Sunday lunchtime for at least the past ten years.


Overall tournament statistics reveal:


· Live viewing to BBC ONE was 50% higher than to ITV1 for the World Cup (average audience to BBC 4.6m, ITV 3.0m). This is much greater than the 9% lead the BBC had for its France '98 coverage.
· The viewing ratio for BBC ONE over ITV1 was three and a half to one for the matches broadcast simultaneously on both channels.
· 8 out of the 10 most watched matches were on the BBC.
· The BBC also had 50% higher audiences than ITV for their highlights programmes (average audience to BBC 3.2m, ITV 2.1m).


· The BBC's World Cup website accounted for 30% of traffic to the entire BBCi site during the tournament and had a record breaking month in June which included:


· Over 250 million page impressions in June (250,992,542 to be precise!) - 185m to the World Cup website in June (Sport Online previous best was May 2002 when the site registered 101.7m)
· New daily record of 16m - set on the day of England-Argentina (Friday 7 June); previous pre-World Cup best daily mark was 6.2m (20 July 2001).
· Approximately 130,000 e-mails to the Sports Talk section of the World Cup site (20,000 for the World Cup interactive programme).
· A quarter of a million downloads of Mini Motty, and half a million accessing the World Cup warrior game.
· Big increase in demand for video and audio - 250,000 watching or listening to news bulletins during June.


BBC Director of Sport, Peter Salmon, said: "The World Cup has been an outstanding tournament on the pitch and across the BBC.


"On television, interactive, radio and online, records have been broken, and we've earned the right to say that the BBC is yet again the place for the big occasion."


Highlights of previous viewing figures include:


England v Brazil: Friday 21 June, ko 7.30am (simulcast BBC and ITV)
BBC ONE - match average 12.4m, peak 13.1m, 71% share
- programme average 9.2m, 67.7% share
ITV - match average 3.6m, peak 4m, 20% share
- programme average 2.5m, 21.8% share


England v Denmark: Saturday 15 June, BBC ONE, 1130-1445
- match average 12.4m, 13.2m peak, 69.8% share
- programme average 9.8m, 64% share
ITV Simulcast - 1130-1500
- match average 3.2m, 3.6m peak, 17.7% share
- programme average 2.6m, 17% share


Sweden v England
ITV1, Sunday 2 June, 0930-1255
- m
atch average 12.6m, 13.7m peak, 83.8% share
- programme average 9.2m, 72% share


Argentina v England
BBC ONE, Friday 7 June, 1150-1445
- match average 11.9m, 13.3m peak, 83.1% share
- programme average 10.2m, 79% share


England v Nigeria
BBC ONE, Wednesday 12 June
- match average 12.2m, 13.1m peak, 84.6% share
- programme average 9.6m, 81% share


Notes to Editors


All these figures only account for in home viewing, so the true figures will be higher.


Live coverage of the World Cup semi-finals on the BBC (22.06.02)


BBC ONE shows the World Cup quarter-finals (18.06.02)


BBC Sport announces schedule of second round World Cup games (14.06.02)


BBC to show clashing World Cup games live on BBC ONE and BBCi (10.06.02)


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