10.4 million peak for ITV Sport Euro opener coverage

Germany v Scotland scores highest peak audience of any opening match of major tournament in a decade…

ITV Sport is celebrating that more than 10 million viewers watched ITV’s live and exclusive Euro 2024 kick-off match between Germany and Scotland – the highest peak audience of any opening to a major football tournament in a decade. On ITV1 and ITVX the match peaked with 10.4 million, with an average of 9.1 million watching the match itself from kick-off to final whistle, and an average of six million for the coverage overall.

The peak gives the match the highest peak audience of a tournament kick-off on ITV or the BBC since the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, while the coverage average is the highest for an opener of the Euros since France v Romania at Euro 2016.

“As always with a live event ITV had a tech team monitoring and all ITV-operated systems across broadcast and streaming had no issues on any ITVX live streaming platforms throughout the coverage.” – ITV

Led by main presenter Mark Pougatch along with Laura Woods, ITV’s insight, expertise and opinion came from a punditry line-up of Ian Wright, Roy Keane, Gary Neville, Karen Carney, Graeme Souness, Eni Aluko, Gael Clichy, Joleon Lescott, Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou, Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Röhl and refereeing analyst Christina Unkel.

The programme has been criticised by STV viewers who said the pre-match run up coverage contained 30 minutes of chat and interviews concerning the forthcoming England match. One asked ‘will there be half an hour of discussion about the next Scotland game during England’s pre-match coverage?’ Others criticised 90 minutes of the programme before the match which saw regional news and the national news programme cut to 15 minutes each – when the usual daytime offerings were unaffected. ‘Why not a half-hour best of The Chase? If something has to be cut, this is where Ofcom should have kick’.

“Following the opening game, ITV will show England’s final Group game against Slovenia and will have picks one, two and three of the Round of 16 as well as first pick of the Semi-finals.” – ITV

ITV will show what is likely to be one of the most anticipated early tournament games – the Group B match between Spain, who are among the favourites, and Italy, the holders. ITV’s Group stage coverage includes games featuring many pundits’ favourites, France [against Austria on 17 June] as well as other heavy-hitters in Portugal [v Turkey on 22 June], Croatia [v Spain on 15 June] and Belgium [v Slovakia on 17 June].

Moving into the knockout rounds, ITV will have the first three picks, plus the fifth and seventh picks from the Round of 16 ties, the second and fourth Quarter-final picks and first pick of the Semi-finals. Both ITV and the BBC will show the Final. All ITV games will be shown on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player.

These ratings are based on BARB overnights combined with non-TV viewing data.