ITV celebrate biggest audience of 2023 with Rugby coverage

England’s Rugby World Cup exit gave ITV1 its biggest audience of the year with 8.7 million viewers watching the final moment of the Semi-final match, as South Africa edged their way into the Final following a late penalty giving them a 16-15 win.

From kick off to final whistle, live coverage was watched by 7.2m and 41 per cent of the available television audience last night, making it the most watched of the tournament and the most watched rugby match since England played Scotland in the 2021 Six Nations, also shown on ITV1.

The total coverage last night was watched by 5.2m – ITV1’s biggest overnight audience this year after Britain’s Got Talent.

The Rugby World Cup has been streamed over 50 million times on ITVX, including last Sunday’s coverage of the Quarter-Finals between England and Fiji and France and South Africa, which was ITVX’s biggest day of the year with 14 million streams.

The figures above for last  night’s Rugby World Cup semi-final audience do not include ITVX data, which is not yet available.

The Rugby World Cup Bronze Final between England and Argentina will be shown live on ITV1 and ITVX next Friday from 7.30pm and the Final between New Zealand and South Africa will be shown on ITV1 and ITVX on Saturday 28 October with coverage from 7pm.