England’s defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 final was watched by a peak audience of 23.8 million across the BBC and ITV, the highest combined audience for a television broadcast this year.
The BBC’s audience peaked at 17.8 million, while ITV’s coverage – which was praised by the Guardian’s reviewer and featured an interview with the prime minister – was watched by a peak of 6 million.
Although broadcasters will be happy with this audience, it is substantially down from the 31 million who watched England lose to Italy in the Euro 2020 final. It is also up only marginally on the audience who watched England’s semi-final against the Netherlands on Wednesday night.
The overnight figures, provided by the agency Digital-i, do not include people watching in pubs or fanzones, which may have affected the headline numbers as people gathered outside their home for the final.
Broadcasters are also expected to put out their own numbers for people who watched on iPlayer and ITV Player, which are not always captured in overnight figures.
The high ratings throughout the tournament have been a triumph for traditional broadcasters who find live sport can give them an edge over streaming services. The Euros are one of the UK’s “crown jewel” sporting events – along with the football World Cup, Wimbledon and the Olympics – which are required by law to be shown on free-to-air channels. ITV’s finances will have been materially boosted by capturing an England semi-final match.
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Not everyone in the UK spent their Sunday night watching the football – especially in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. ITV2 had 692,000 people watching Love Island, BBC2 attracted 467,000 viewers for an episode of The Turkish Detective, while 452,000 Britons decided they could not bear to watch England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford screaming at his defenders and instead watched the 1997 film Titanic on Channel 4.