Over 8 Million Watch Commonwealth Games Ceremony

Over 8 million viewers tuned into BBC1 last night to watch the opening ceremony of the XVII Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

The BBC’s coverage of the ceremony, which ran from 8.55pm to 11.20pm, attracted an average audience of 8.3 million and secured a 39% share of viewing. Audiences peaked at 8.9 million at around 10.45pm, a significant increase on the slot average of 4.5 million viewers.

Commenting on the figures, Peter Salmon, director of BBC Sport, said: “The Commonwealth Games is a fantastic competition and we’re delighted that the country has turned to the BBC for the big opener.”

The BBC achieved notable success with its World Cup coverage recently, with BBC1 attracting consistently higher viewing figures than ITV1. More than 12 million people tuned into to BBC1 to watch England get knocked out of the World Cup finals, compared to an average of just 3.6 million viewers that watched ITV1’s coverage of the game (see Over 12 Million Watch England’s World Cup Defeat On BBC1).

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk

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