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UK World Cup audiences lag behind rest of Europe
World Cup 2006 - 23 June, 2006
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Other European countries are bypassing the United Kingdom when it comes to World Cup TV viewership, writes Kevin Alavy, senior analyst at Initiative Futures. According to Initiative's most recent ViewerTrack, in spite of England arguably having their best chance in recent years of winning the World Cup, ratings have lagged behind other European nations.
The United Kingdom World Cup audience was fourth highest in Europe by percentage of the population in 1998. By 2002, it had slipped to 10th. Now, for the first 29 matches this year, the audiences are only 13th-highest in Europe, despite ITV1 and the BBC picking up healthy ratings.
The Sweden match pulled in a peak of 20.9 million for ITV1.
While the United Kingdom World Cup TV audience is growing, as 25 percent more people are watching this year compared with 2002. But the audiences in other European countries are growing even more rapidly.
Surprisingly, the relative lack of support for England in terms of in-home viewing is partly responsible.
In other European countries with teams playing in the World Cup, an average of 28 percent of the population has been watching their teams on TV. In the UK, only 18 percent of the population has watched England play so far.
The numbers may be deceptive, given one quarter of the UK population lives outside of England. The Welsh, Scots and Irish are less likely to support the English team, and therefore are less likely to watch their matches on TV.
United Kingdom audiences may also have been forced down by the exceptionally warm weather, which has encouraged out-of-home viewing.
However, there is still plenty of time for audiences to recover their position in the European audience league, given England have already qualified for the second round.
In contrast to Europe, South America has been restored as the highest World Cup TV viewing region in 2006. South America had previously enjoyed the highest World Cup audience by region in 1998, but was overtaken in 2002 by Asia-Pacific and Europe.
World Cup 2002 was the domain of Asia-Pacific, with TV audiences soaring to an average of 11 ratings a match, the highest of any region.
Audiences were boosted by Japan and South Korea jointly hosting the tournament, and South Korea enjoying unprecedented success.
By contrast, viewers in Europe and South America had to watch live matches at inconvenient times of day, depressing their average audiences to nine ratings and eight ratings respectively.
The United Kingdom World Cup audience was fourth highest in Europe by percentage of the population in 1998. By 2002, it had slipped to 10th. Now, for the first 29 matches this year, the audiences are only 13th-highest in Europe, despite ITV1 and the BBC picking up healthy ratings.
The Sweden match pulled in a peak of 20.9 million for ITV1.
While the United Kingdom World Cup TV audience is growing, as 25 percent more people are watching this year compared with 2002. But the audiences in other European countries are growing even more rapidly.
Surprisingly, the relative lack of support for England in terms of in-home viewing is partly responsible.
In other European countries with teams playing in the World Cup, an average of 28 percent of the population has been watching their teams on TV. In the UK, only 18 percent of the population has watched England play so far.
The numbers may be deceptive, given one quarter of the UK population lives outside of England. The Welsh, Scots and Irish are less likely to support the English team, and therefore are less likely to watch their matches on TV.
United Kingdom audiences may also have been forced down by the exceptionally warm weather, which has encouraged out-of-home viewing.
However, there is still plenty of time for audiences to recover their position in the European audience league, given England have already qualified for the second round.
In contrast to Europe, South America has been restored as the highest World Cup TV viewing region in 2006. South America had previously enjoyed the highest World Cup audience by region in 1998, but was overtaken in 2002 by Asia-Pacific and Europe.
World Cup 2002 was the domain of Asia-Pacific, with TV audiences soaring to an average of 11 ratings a match, the highest of any region.
Audiences were boosted by Japan and South Korea jointly hosting the tournament, and South Korea enjoying unprecedented success.
By contrast, viewers in Europe and South America had to watch live matches at inconvenient times of day, depressing their average audiences to nine ratings and eight ratings respectively.
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