Champions League final nets more than 10m viewers
Chelsea's penalty shootout win over Bayern Munich gains a five-minute peak audience of 10.6m on ITV1
by John Plunkett 1 year ago
Also about this match
'Unhappy' Torres to discuss his Chelsea future after 'ups and downs'
Petr Cech does his homework and Chelsea earn final dividends

Chelsea's penalty shootout win in the Uefa Champions League final was watched by a peak audience of more than 10 million viewers on ITV1 on Saturday night.

A five-minute peak audience of 10.6 million saw Didier Drogba seal the Blues' victory over Bayern Munich with the last kick of the match late on Saturday night.

ITV1's coverage averaged 6.54 million viewers, a 29.2% share, between 7pm and 11.30pm. The finish was extended first by extra time and then penalties after the match finished 1-1 in regular time.

Live match coverage averaged 8.2 million viewers and a 33.5% share over three hours from 7.45pm.

Sky Sports 1's live coverage of Chelsea's victory averaged 1.488 million and a 6.7% share from 6pm.

Last year's Champions League final, in which Barcelona beat Manchester United 3-1 at Wembley, averaged 7.9 million and a 33.2% share on ITV1. The live match average was 10.2 million and 40.6%.

Another 1.340 million watched Sky Sports 1's coverage of the 2011 final.

Four years ago, a peak audience of 14.6 million watched Manchester United's win over Chelsea in the all-English Champions League final in 2008.

Then – when the final was still broadcast on a Wednesday night – ITV1's coverage averaged 9.6 million (43%).

On Saturday night competition for ITV1's live football included BBC1's The National Lottery: In It to Win It (8pm: 4.3 million/17.9%) and Casualty (8.50pm: 4.1 million//16.1%), BBC2's Off by Heart Shakespeare (9pm: 400,000/1.8%), Channel 4 movie repeat Titanic (6.05pm-9.45pm: 1.6 million/7.2%) and Channel 5's CSI: NY (9.40pm: 1.4 million/5.6%).

Is BBC1 in danger of losing its Voice?

Chelsea fans were in better voice than BBC1's The Voice, which has seen its ratings take a tumble since the end of the initial four-week "blind audition" round.

Saturday's instalment of the talent show had 5.63 million viewers, a 27.4% share, between 6.30pm and 8pm.

It failed to put on any viewers on the previous Saturday's show, despite no longer being up against ITV1's ratings juggernaut, Britain's Got Talent.

Saturday's edition of the BBC1 show was also dogged by a series of mishaps.

It returned for its results show with marginally more viewers, 5.8 million, a 26.2% share between 7.25pm and 8pm on Sunday night.

A month ago The Voice averaged just under 10 million viewers for its Saturday night show, a 42.5% share, with just more than 10 million and 38.5% on Sunday.

On Saturday The Voice was up against the final episode of Keith Lemon's LemonAid, which averaged 1.9 million and 10.8%.

The fastest plasterer in Scandinavia

The final two episodes of BBC4's latest Scandinavian crime drama import, The Bridge, averaged 850,000 and 819,000 viewers, respectively, on Saturday.

Audience shares for the two episodes were 3.4% for the first, from 9pm, and 3.6% for the concluding instalment an hour later. Audience and share figures include BBC HD viewing (48,000/0.2%, 45,000/0.2%, respectively).

The Bridge launched with just more than 1 million viewers on 21 April, before slipping back slightly to about 700,000-800,000 for the rest of the series.

Other top rating free-to-air multichannel shows on Saturday included two ITV3 repeats, Lewis (9pm: 946,000/4%) and Doc Martin (8pm: 889,000/3.7%).

Pay-TV multichannel was all about sport on Saturday. Along with the Champions League final, Sky Sports 1 also broadcast live coverage of West Ham's 2-1 win over Blackpool in the Championship play-off final (2pm: 1.029 million/9%).

Over on Sky Sports 2, live coverage of the England v West Indies cricket Test from Lords averaged 346,000 viewers and 3.2% from 10.30am, while Sky Sports 3 featured live coverage of the Leinster's victory over Ulster in the rugby union European Cup final (4.30pm: 286,000/1.8%).

All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC and some other channels including Sky1) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.

Recent articles about Bayern München and Chelsea
Staggeringly mediocre foreign teams who fluked their way to Wembley Today
Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund: Tactical analysis Today
David Moyes can settle down to a sneak preview of his Judgement Day Today
The great European Cup teams: Barcelona 2009-2011 Today
Robert Lewandowski brings goals and fortitude to Borussia Dortmund Today

More from
UEFA Champions LeagueBayern MünchenChelsea
Share your thoughts
Sign in to comment
Page 1 of 1
Only 10 Million views for game, for England right? Cause in world it must have had 100's of Millions worldwide right?
+1
deleted comment myself because of stupidity
what? I may sound dumb but what they had to have millions of people watching.
it was something like 300-400m people that watched the final i remember hearing on it on the night
these estimates were based on 1 channel not the totality
It might have reach a billion worldwide
Related videos
1 year ago
1 year ago
Trending articles
PSG lure Wayne Rooney with promise to match Manchester United wages
José Mourinho will face greater expectations at Chelsea this time round
Chelsea ask Galatasaray if Turkey striker Burak Yilmaz is for sale
How Germany went from bust to boom on the talent production line
Premier League's managerial shift may bring end to patience as a virtue
Manchester United's David Moyes considers move for Marouane Fellaini
Brian Greenhoff obituary
The great European Cup teams: Barcelona 2009-2011
The great European Cup teams: Milan 1989-90
Robert Lewandowski brings goals and fortitude to Borussia Dortmund
Tony Pulis departure from Stoke City signals the end of an error
Mike Phelan and Eric Steele in Manchester United coaching clearout
Champions League final: webchat with Barney Ronay
The Joy of Six: Football League play-off finals
David Moyes can settle down to a sneak preview of his Judgement Day
MLS week 13: Reviews and previews
   
Kick4Life - changing lives through football