Nearly 24m watch England penalty win
July 4, 2018
England’s World Cup penalty shootout victory over Colombia on July 3rd was watched by 23.6 million viewers on ITV, according to overnight figures.
More people tuned in for the nail-biting climax between 9:50-9:55pm than at any other time since the 2012 Olympic closing ceremony. At this point in the game, 81 per cent of people watching TV in the UK were tuned into ITV.
The actual number would be far greater if everyone watching in pubs, clubs and viewing parties across the country could be quantified.
An average audience of 20.1 million watched the game in its entirety, A record 3.3 million people also watched online via the ITV Hub, ITV said.
England will now face Sweden in the quarter-finals. The game will air on BBC1 on the afternoon of July 7th.
The victory over Colombia ended the “curse of ITV” – which had seen England lose every one of their World Cup matches broadcast on the commercial network (with just one exception) over the last 20 years.