Euro 2012 climax falls short of semi-final viewing figures in Spain and Italy
03 Jul 2012
Sunday’s UEFA Euro 2012 final between Spain and Italy failed to match the domestic viewing figures for the two teams’ semi-final victories, although the game did set one new record in Spain.
Defending champion Spain completed a comprehensive 4-0 win over Italy in Kiev, with Spanish commercial broadcaster Telecinco securing a record audience over 90 minutes of 15.481 million (83.4% share), according to television audience consultancy Barlovento Comunicacion, which cited figures from Kantar. Fernando Torres’ third goal resulted in a peak audience of 17.899 million (90% share) at 22:32 local time in Spain. By contrast, Wednesday’s 4-2 penalty shoot-out triumph over Iberian neighbour Portugal was watched by 18.141 million viewers representing a 83.3% share of the evening’s television viewership. Barlovento said these figures made it the most viewed programme in Spanish history. The viewing peak came at 23:26 local time as Cesc Fabregas’s penalty sealed the Spanish victory, with a total 19.086 million people (an 87.3% share) watching the action unfold. The game itself drew an average of 14.182 million viewers, rising to 16.485 million for extra time.
In Italy, state broadcaster Rai recorded an average audience of 22.47 million for an 81.66% share. This compared to the 23.255 million viewers (79.55% share) that watched the national team’s semi-final victory over Germany on Thursday. The final had a peak audience of 23.692 million viewers at 21:27 local time.
In other news, Twitter has revealed that Sunday’s final match resulted in 16.5 million tweets from fans around the world. Total global traffic on the social networking platform peaked at 15,358 tweets per second during Juan Mata’s fourth goal, a new sports-related record on Twitter.
