Domestic television audiences for the English Premier League have increased year-on-year across the league’s live and highlights coverage.
For the league’s live coverage, pay-television broadcaster BSkyB recorded its second best season ever, while telecommunications company BT posted viewing figures well in excess of those achieved by previous Premier League pay-television broadcasters ESPN and Setanta.
Audiences for public-service broadcaster the BBC’s flagship Match of the Day highlights programme were up on the previous season by just under three per cent.
BSkyB, the league’s principal live broadcast partner, drew its second-highest season average audience since it began broadcasting the Premier League, with 1.476m viewers watching its live match coverage in 2013-14. Sky achieved its best-ever season average of 1.571m in 2011-12, the year in which Manchester City won the title on the final day, on goal difference over close rivals Manchester United.
Sky’s average for this season was just over five per cent up on its audiences for last season, despite relinquishing 18 of the 38 available “first pick” matches to BT. The most-watched match on Sky this season was the Manchester United-Arsenal fixture on Sunday November 10, for which an average audience of 2.91m (a 16.7-per-cent share) tuned in.
In its debut season as a live broadcaster of the Premier League, BT attracted an average audience of 750,000 (a 6.6-per-cent share) per live match across its 38 matches. BT’s performance compares favourably with that of its predecessors, pay-television broadcasters ESPN and Setanta. BT’s average audience for 2013-14 is 58 per cent higher than ESPN’s debut season and 65 per cent higher than Setanta’s.
The most-watched match on BT was the Boxing Day clash between Manchester City and Liverpool, which drew an average audience of 1.614m (a 7.8-per-cent share).
The BBC’s Match of the Day attracted an average audience of 3.882m (a 25.1-per-cent share) viewers in 2013-14, up from 3.774m (a 22.7-per-cent share) for last season.
This analysis was carried out by SportBusiness Intelligence, as part of an in-depth special focus which will be published in the Watching Brief newsletter, on Friday May 16.
Live viewing figures are based on a two-hour timeslot (from the kick-off onwards), to take stoppage time into account.
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