BBC1 benefits from football victory

BBC1's live coverage of England's crunch Euro 2008 qualifying game against Israel took the Saturday teatime spoils with 6.1m viewers (41%).

The game itself, which kicked off at 5pm and saw England win 3-0, averaged a strong 6.9m (44%) with the audience peaking on 8.6m (48%) at 6.30pm.

Unsurprisingly the audience for the entire coverage, from 4.30pm, was way above BBC1's slot average for the year so far of 3.6m (25.1%).

The game clashed with ITV1's live coverage of England's opening game in the rugby union World Cup against the USA.

ITV1's coverage, which began at 4.45pm, gained an average audience of 2.2m (14.4%). The match itself, which saw England struggle to a 28-10 win, picked up 2.3m (15.2%) from 5pm.

The game peaked with 2.7m (15.5%) at 6.30pm.

As the Barb figures only measure "at home" viewing neither of the sporting events will have taken into account those viewers who watched the matches in pubs or clubs.

Source: Broadcast Now