Live coverage of the final stages of Spain’s victory over Portugal in the semi-finals of Uefa Euro 2012 on Wednesday attracted the largest audience in the history of Spanish television.
An average of 18.14 million viewers – equivalent to an 83.3-per-cent audience share – watched the penalty shoot-out on commercial broadcaster Telecinco after the game had finished goalless after extra-time, according to media research company Kantar Media. According to television audience consultancy Barlovento Comunicacion, which cited Kantar’s figures, the 13 minutes of the shoot-out generated the largest average audience for a multiple-minute broadcast in the country’s history.
A peak of 19.09 million viewers, an 87.3-per-cent audience share, watched Cesc Fabregas score the winning penalty in the shoot-out at 23:26 local time in Spain – the largest one-minute audience in Spain’s history, Barlovento added.
An average of 14.18 million viewers tuned in for the first 90 minutes of the contest, and the audience increased to 16.485 million for the 30 minutes of extra-time.
In Portugal, commercial broadcaster SIC provided live coverage of the game, and attracted the largest audience in the country for eight years. An average of 3.69 million viewers, a 74.8-per-cent audience share, watched the whole game, including the first 90 minutes, extra-time and the penalty shoot-out, according to SIC.
In Germany, live coverage on public-service broadcaster ARD of the second Euro 2012 semi-final between Germany and Italy yesterday attracted an average of 27.98 million viewers, a 76.8-per-cent audience share. The audience for Germany’s 2-1 defeat fell short of the average of 29.46 million, an 81.6-per-cent share, for Germany’s 3-2 win against Turkey in the semi-finals of Euro 2008, the audience record in Germany for the tournament.