News & Views

2010 FIFA World Cup

1 August 2010

The 2010 Fifa World Cup has been the first to offer nearly all broadcast matches in high definition. Over the 64 televised games, 57 were broadcast live in both standard and high definition.

Over the entire 64 matches, standard definition matches achieved a cumulative reach of over 90% with 12.5% reach for high definition coverage (57 games).

World Cup Viewing

Reach
000s%
Standard Definition5146790.2
High Definition713712.5

Top 10 matches for both standard and high definition were dominated by both the four England games and the World Cup Final between Holland and Spain which formed the top five programme audiences in both standard and high definition.

The World Cup final between Holland and Spain was the most watched match of the world cup in standard definition with an average audience of 16.2m viewers, and was the second most watched match on high definition with an audience of 1.6m. England’s game against Germany in the second round was the second most watched match of the tournament in standard definition, with 15.8m viewers and the most watched match on high definition with an average audience of 1.6m.

Top 10 matches Standard Definition

Average AudienceReach
MatchChannel000sShare%
Holland v SpainBBC1 & ITV11622556.846.2
Germany v EnglandBBC11580773.434.2
England v AlgeriaITV11317651.840
England v USAITV11234250.237.9
Slovenia v EnglandBBC11158271.727.6
Germany v SpainBBC1104814331.1
Holland v UruguayITV1822135.428.8
Spain v PortugalBBC1794135.825.6
Brazil v Ivory CoastBBC177613325.1
Uruguay v FranceBBC1731832.723.8

Top 10 matches High Definition

Average AudienceReach
MatchChannel000sShare%
Germany v EnglandBBC HD16447.63.2
Holland v SpainBBC HD & ITV1 HD16065.64
England v AlgeriaITV1 HD14475.73.8
England v USAITV1 HD123453.2
Germany v SpainBBC HD9303.83.8
Slovenia v EnglandBBC HD9275.72
Holland v UruguayITV1 HD6682.92.2
Germany v AustraliaITV1 HD6662.72.2
Uruguay v GhanaITV1HD6613.12.4
Brazil v Ivory CoastBBC HD6092.61.8

Comparatively, the highest watched match in the 2006 World Cup was the match between England and Sweden which achieved an average audience of 18.5m viewers.