12.7m see Nadal clinch Wimbledon victory

Rafa Nadal (pic: Reuters)

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The exciting men's Wimbledon final peaked with an audience of 12.7m viewers (45%) at 9pm on BBC1 as Rafa Nadal clinched the title in a five set thriller.

The delayed match that was halted twice due to rain ate into BBC1's schedule with the entire coverage between 1.30pm and 9.30pm picking up a substantial 7.4m (38.1%).

Due to rain affecting the match, viewers did fluctuate a fair bit over the coverage. At the start viewing was rather moderate with just 1.7m (13.4%) but the audience quickly built up and by 3.15pm it hit 6.9m (47.8%). It continued to rise from then on and managed 8.5m (49.7%) AT 4.45pm. Viewing declined then for an hour and fell to 5.8m (32.6%) at 5.45pm but then bounced back to a high of 10.9m (46.6%) at 7.15pm. Viewing once again then tailed off but bounced back to its high at 9pm.

The corporation's entire coverage was substantially up on the channel's slot average for the year so far by 118% with the channel normally averaging 3.4m (19.6%). In 2007 it averaged 3.2m (19.1%).

BBC1's Wimbledon coverage boosted the channel's peaktime share to a massive 36.2%, the highest of the year so far. The previous highest share had been 34.3% on 29 June. So far this year BBC1 has averaged 24% between 6pm and 10.30pm.

Unsurprisingly, the game completely overshadowed viewing at the time with only ITV1 managing to put up some serious competition later on in peaktime. In the afternoon the commercial network's James Bond movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service at 3.20pm thrilled just 1.5m (9.4%). ITV1 though picked up the pace at 8pm thanks to a new murder investigation in Midsomer Murders which attracted 6.3m (23.7%) for two hours.

BBC2 also had a fair crack of the whip at 8pm thanks to Top Gear on 5.4m (19.8%). Despite the strong showing from BBC1 at the time the motoring show actually grew its audience from the previous week by 700,000.

Both Five and Channel 4 were left far behind at the time. A re-run of Personal Services Required at 8pm on C4 interested just 600,000 (2.4%). The show Five's repeat of Robochick and Bionic Boy, also at 8pm had 500,000 (1.8%).

The BBC1 wasn't the only channel to get in on the sporting action on Sunday as ITV1 had live coverage of the British Grand Prix.

The early afternoon coverage between midday and 3.20pm was a strong attraction with 4.4m (35.7%) tuning in. The coverage hit a high of 5.8m (45%) at 2pm.

Big Brother at 9pm was Channel 4's only show to make any sort of impression with the viewers as the reality show gained 2.8m (10.6%) with 300,000 watching on C4+1.

Five's film Tears of the Sun at 9pm had 1m (5.2%).

All hours shares for Sunday 6 July 2008: BBC1 – 31.5%, ITV1 – 18.1%, BBC2 – 8.6%, C4 – 5.8% (C4+1 – 0.6%), Five – 3.6%, multichannel – 31.9%.

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: BBC1 – 36.2%, ITV1 – 18.8%, BBC2 – 10.8%, C4 - 6% (C4+1 – 0.4%), Five – 3.7%, multichannel – 24.3%.