Initiative’s most recent ViewerTrack study monitoring World Cup TV audiences shows an average live in-home audience of 8.8 million for the BBC1 broadcast of England vs. Paraguay in the UK.
The match attracted the second-largest average audience for any sports event of 2006 in the UK. Its viewing audience was nearly one million people less than that recorded by the Champions League Final between Barcelona and Arsenal, which was watched at-home by 9.6 million Britons on ITV1.
Audience figures for England vs. Paraguay were significantly lower than for England’s opening matches in previous World Cups (12.6 million for Sweden in 2002 and 11.0 million for Tunisia in 1998). Viewing figures were depressed by a combination of exceptionally hot weather, which encouraged fans to watch out-of-home, and what was arguably a very boring match.
These factors also help to explain the comparatively low viewing figures recorded for the game in other major markets. Of the eight matches played over the opening weekend, England vs. Paraguay was the least-watched game in Germany (7.2 million viewers) and in Spain (0.4 million).
some UK viewers are only watching the commentators on TV , not the matches. and they are only watching them for very short "natlike" concentration "whippets".
On a recent evening i can sum up the consensus of some depth interviews and verbatims in the brighton area on enjoyment levels of the world cup so far as follows:-
Black or white
Wrighty’s shite
Day or night
Talking cod like the god of ball
At least on the telly he’s only small
....smoke on that ye international blogsky elite
Posted by: patrick morrison | 15 June 2006 at 10:48 PM