Women’s World Cup Final: Lionesses Defeat To Spain Watched By Nearly 15M In UK
21.08.2023 - 13:29
/ deadline.com
The England Lionesses defeat to Spain in the Women’s World Cup Final was watched by a peak of 14.4M people yesterday across the BBC and ITV.
Coverage was shown on both channels for the first time in the women’s game but couldn’t match the record from last year’s Euros final of a 17.4M peak, or the plus-20M who watched the men lose to Italy in the Euros final. The UK audience was well ahead of the previous women’s World Cup final between the U.S. and the Netherlands, however.
The vast majority – around 12M peak – watched on the BBC, according to Barb data from overnights.tv. The two public broadcasters have been sharing coverage throughout, as per normal arrangements with major soccer competitions.
Record audiences had been building throughout the tournament but England’s World Cup ended in tragedy with a 1-0 defeat courtesy of an Olga Carmona goal, with Spain outplaying England for much of the game despite 12 of their players being left out of the squad due to a row with coach Jorge Vilda.
Played in Australia over the past month, the tournament has been garnering huge audiences around the world.
Defying the odds, Australia’s 3-1 semi-final defeat to England was the most watched TV event in Australian history, with 11.15M viewers tuning in – comfortably more than one third of the population in a country where soccer is by no means the national sport. The Matildas’ achievement in finishing fourth (the men have never got past the second round) cannot be understated and captured the nation’s imagination while the tournament was being played on home turf.
In the U.S., Fox coverage was up from 2019 despite time zone headaches (the team’s final game aired at 5 a.m. ET) and a shock early elimination following Megan Rapinoe’s
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