England-less Euro 08 fails to score in ratings

Euro 2008

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England's absence from the Euro 2008 football tournament has had a markedly adverse affect on viewing figures for both BBC1 and ITV1, but the competition has still had its moments.

With the semi-finals and final still to air, coverage across the two main terrestrial channels has averaged 4.6 million/24.1% share since the competition began on 7 June. This is down 37% on the previous tournament in 2004 (when England qualified), which averaged 7.3 million/37.8% at the same stage.

In 2004, all the England games easily cleared the 10 million mark. The least watched England game was the 3-0 victory over Switzerland (pictured, centre) on 17 June on ITV1, which attracted 10.7 million/61.1% at 4pm. Excluding the final, the most watched non-England game was Portugal's 1-0 defeat of Spain on 20 June at 7.30pm. It attracted 8.1 million/34.6%.

BBC1 has suffered the most this tournament as it aired three of England's four games in 2004. This year the games that BBC1 has aired have averaged 4.7 million/25.1%, a fall of 40.9% compared to 2004, when the BBC1 matches averaged 8 million/40.7%.

ITV1 audiences are down 27.1% compared with 2004. The games it has shown this year have averaged 4.6 million/23.9% compared with 6.2 million/32.5% in 2004.

Nine of the games shown on the two main channels this year have failed to reach 4 million - in 2004 only four games failed to reach that mark.

But this year's tournament has managed to draw sizeable audiences at times. The two quarter-finals on 21 and 22 June both averaged 7.2 million with a 33.8% and 29.7% share respectively. They outperformed the corresponding games in the 2004 tournament, which averaged 6.3 million/31.1% and 6.3 million/27.3%.

ABC1 viewers have remained largely loyal to the tournament, with that demographic making up 41.7% of the audience this year, compared with 43.4% in 2004. Viewers aged between 16 and 34 have dipped very slightly. In 2004 those viewers made up 23.5% of the total audience. For this tournament this figure has dropped marginally to 20.8%.

This year's tournament has been a big attraction for men, unsurprisingly, with males making up a sizeable 65.4% of its total audience. In 2004 59.4% of the tournament's audience was male.

While viewing figures may be down from 2004, the games have dominated viewing while they have been on. One exception has been the return of BBC2's Top Gear. While Italy and Spain were battling it out for a semi-final place on BBC1 on 22 June, Top Gear at 8pm found a sizeable audience of 6.1 million/24.35%. It didn't win the slot but did give BBC1 a run for its money, with the football averaging 6.4 million/25.5% at the time.