David Farnor | On 09, Jul 2019

This year’s record-breaking Women’s World Cup soared past 13 million online views, the BBC has revealed.

A record-breaking 28.1m tuned into the game-changing tournament on the BBC this summer. England v USA drew the highest live TV audience of 2019 with 11.7m viewers. Audiences were equally active online, though, with 13.1m total match requests on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport.

Audiences across the country have been entertained by some of the best players in the world over the past four weeks, creating memories and household names as the women’s game continues to go from strength to strength. Millions tuned in to see Scotland in their first-ever World Cup, England go toe-to-toe with the USA in the semi-final, Megan Rapinoe claim the Golden Boot and Brazilian striker Marta become all-time leading scorer in the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The USA clinched a record fourth World Cup against the Netherlands yesterday afternoon – a game that attracted a peak BBC One audience of 4.7m and peak share of 38.5%.

Barbara Slater, Director of BBC Sport, says: “This World Cup was the most memorable to date and it has engaged sport fans across the UK. The BBC is committed to growing the women’s game and our free-to-air coverage has ensured the tournament reached the widest possible audience. This was the first major event to kick off our Change The Game season and it’s record-breaking viewing didn’t disappoint.”

After 52 games, the BBC reach (15 mins or more) has been 28.1m – over double Canada 2015 which brought in a reach of 12.4m. England v USA was the most-watched game of the tournament with a peak audience of 11.7m and peak share of 50.8 per cent. 1.7m live online requests were also logged for England v USA, making it the most-streamed women’s game on BBC’s platforms.

The rest of the top five most requested matches online includes England v Norway (883k), England v Cameroon (640k), England v Japan (623k) and England v Argentina (523k).

This year, BBC audiences will enjoy continued access to women’s football on TV with a match shown each round from the Women’s Super League, the Women’s Football Show, live women’s FA Cup football including the semi-finals and final, Lionesses games and other major international fixtures.

 

Women’s World Cup sets new UK TV record

22nd June 2019

The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 is only at the halfway stage, but has already set a new record for total UK TV reach for a women’s football competition.

The TV reach now stands at 17.2m ahead of the knockout phases making it the UK’s most viewed women’s football tournament on record – surpassing the current record of 12.4m, which was set back in 2015 during the World Cup in Canada.

A record-breaking 6.1m tuned in for England v Scotland, Australia’s three-goal comeback against Brazil, Marta becoming the all-time leading goal scorer at women’s or men’s World Cup and the emotional scenes that followed Thailand’s first-ever World Cup goal. A further 494k online programme requests were logged by people streaming the match on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.

The other most-watched games include England v Argentina (5.4m), England v Japan (4.7m), France v South Korea (2.2m) and USA v Chile (2m). The total audience reach during the group stage for live matches is 17.2m – compared to 12.4m for the whole tournament in 2015.

Online audiences across BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport have seen a total of 6.2m live and on-demand programme requests for the group stage matches. The most-requested matches across BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport were: England v Japan (623k), England v Argentina (523k) England v Scotland (494k), Scotland v Argentina (353k) and France v South Korea (201k). Since the start of the tournament, BBC Sport online has received a total of 9.4m unique visitors so far to the Women’s World Cup section of the site.

The BBC continues to provide live coverage of every game across TV, radio and online during the Round of 16 stage of the tournament:

Barbara Slater, Director of BBC Sport, says: “The interest in the Women’s World Cup so far has been incredible and viewers haven’t been short of daily entertainment as our teams have been working hard to deliver the best tournament to date to the millions that have followed the group stages. To set two new records – 17.2m current total reach and 6.1m for England v Scotland – in the opening weeks is extremely pleasing.”

Here’s the full line-up of remaining matches, plus where and when you can watch them online:

Saturday 22nd June
Germany v Nigeria (4.30pm, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online)

Norway v Australia (8pm, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online)

Sunday 23rd June
England v Cameroon (4.30pm, BBC One, BBC iPlayer and online)

France v Brazil (8pm, BBC Four, BBC iPlayer and online)

Monday 24th June

Spain v USA (5pm, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online)

Sweden v Canada (8pm, BBC iPlayer, Red Button and online)

Tuesday 25th June

Italy v China (5pm, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online)

Netherlands v Japan (8pm, BBC Four, BBC iPlayer and online)

Add to Watchlist