BBC celebrate as they thrash ITV in World Cup ratings war

Gary Lineker and the BBC were celebrating after they smashed ITV and Adrian Chiles in the World Cup final ratings.

BBC1’s coverage of Spain’s 1-0 win over Holland in the World Cup Final, drew a match peak audience, of 17.9m with a 60% audience share – more than FOUR times the amount ITV managed.

The match averaged 15.1m for the BBC and although they declined to comment, sources said bosses were “delighted” with the outcome.

The BBC’s match audience was 4.5 times higher than ITV’s and was the highest BBC final audience since France 98 and up 1.2m from the 2006 tournament.

ITV’s coverage peaked at 3.8m with a 13% share and averaged 3.3m.

One message on the BBC viewers messageboard said: “I’ll be interested to know if anyone watched ITV coverage, the ads are so annoying. So is Clive Tyldesley.”

And on Digital Spy, a viewer called Salv said: “I normally watch ITV coverage, but as I was flicking through the two in the first 5 minutes, I decided to keep on BBC1, it interested me more.”

Despite their hammering, and problems throughout the tournament including a England goal which millions of fans missed, ITV were staying upbeat about their performance.

Peter Fincham, ITV Director of Television said: “I’m proud of what ITV Sport has achieved in South Africa, with Adrian Chiles and the entire team bringing our viewers coverage of the highest quality and offering a fresh perspective on the competition.

“In the age of multichannel television, the television audiences achieved by both channels throughout the tournament are impressive, and I’m particularly pleased that ITV1 broadcast the two most watched moments of the tournament with over 20 million watching each of England’s opening games.”