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Premier League returns with record audiences
Sport Business : 25 June 2020
Anthony Goddard, head of media research, Publicis Sport & Entertainment, delves into the numbers
to see how the UK’s football public returned to their seats for Premier League action after the Covid-
19 enforced hiatus.
Last Wednesday’s return of the Premier League marked a gradual step back to normality for millions
of UK (and international) football fans starved of their regular fix of action for almost one hundred
days.
Before I delve into the numbers, a quick update on the revised Premier League broadcast landscape
for the remainder of the season: Sky Sports will air 64 matches, 25 of those matches will air on Sky’s
free-to-air (FTA) channel Pick with the remaining 39 airing across Sky Sports Pay-TV channels. 20
matches will air across BT Sport’s Pay-TV channels, four matches will receive FTA coverage on the BBC
and four will be shown FTA by Amazon.
Healthy appetite for free-to-air and Pay-TV coverage
Of the 13 post-suspension matches so far aired by Sky Sports, only one (West Ham v Wolves) failed to
eclipse the broadcaster’s pre-suspension whistle-to-whistle average match audience of 1.559 million
viewers. Indeed three of the thirteen matches that Sky Sports has aired since the resumption now
rank amongst the broadcasters top ten-rated Premier League matches of the season to date.
Interestingly, only one of the matches (Everton v Liverpool) that Sky has made available on its FTA Pick
TV platform makes that top ten list.
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The Merseyside derby became reportedly the most watched Premier League match ever with an
average viewership of 4.817 million, peaking at 5.517 million viewers mid-way through the second
half. This beats the previous peak of 4.486 million viewers set by Manchester United v Manchester
City in 2012 (average audience of 4.050 million). It should be noted that the 2012 match aired only
on Sky’s Pay-TV platform, though 60 per cent of the Everton v Liverpool 2020 audience came from
the Pay-TV channels coverage.
The BBC has so far aired two matches, the first being Bournemouth v Crystal Palace which was
shown on BBC1 during Saturday evening primetime. The match had a whistle-to-whistle average
audience of 3.537 million viewers and a peak of 4.116 million.
This is roughly in line with BBC1’s June average audience for the same time slot (approx. 3.4 million
viewers). However, perhaps due to the heavy foot-traffic and churn on BBC1 during Saturday
primetime, the match was actually seen by a total of 10.556 million people (those who watched at
least one minute of coverage) meaning that this unlikely fixture could also lay claim to be the “most
watched” in Premier League history (at least for now).
Interestingly, the average viewer of the BBC1 coverage watched 40 minutes of coverage versus over
an hour per match for viewers of the thematic sports channels. This reflects the fact that viewers of
these channels are more invested in the coverage that they are paying to watch.
Matches aired on BT Sport have received a more mixed reception; live whistle-to-whistle coverage of
Brighton v Arsenal achieved an average of 850,100 viewers, which is 20 per cent higher than the
broadcasters pre-suspension average but well below the seasons high of 1.502 million (Liverpool v
Sheffield United).
Watford v Leicester City garnered an average of 591,500 viewers, 16% below the BT Sport season to
date average of 721,000 viewers. Wednesday evening’s matches, Newcastle United v Aston Villa
and Wolves v Bournemouth (both 6pm kick-off), achieved audiences of 198,000 and 91,000 viewers
respectively.
On Wednesday evening, there was the unique scenario of four Premier League matches airing
simultaneously on UK television. These matches achieved a combined average audience of 4.187
million viewers, almost double the combined channels’ typical audience in this time slot in June
(2.110 million). 11.5 million viewers saw at least some Premier League coverage, 19 per cent of the
potential audience. Impressive numbers considering the early kick-off time and unusually warm
weather experienced across the UK.
Over 41 per cent of UK TV viewers have watched Premier League coverage since the restart
Since matches resumed, 25.179 million UK viewers have seen at least some Premier League
coverage on linear TV, this represents over 41 per cent of the potential audience. The first match
(Aston Villa v Sheffield United) reached almost a fifth of these viewers (4.853 million), with the BBC
contributing a further 7.207 million “new” post-suspension viewers for their prime time coverage of
Bournemouth v Crystal Palace.
TV audiences prefer crowd noise
Sky Sport’s simulcast coverage has enabled the broadcaster to offer several different versions of
match coverage; matches on Sky Sports Main Event have aired with artificially produced crowd noise
while coverage on Sky Sports Premier League has aired without the crowd noise. For selected
matches a “watch along” option has been available on Sky Sports Football, with former players and
pundits watching the match and commentating/discussing.
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Based on viewers who watched at least some coverage of the first match after the suspension (Aston
Villa v Sheffield United) on both Main Event and Premier League channels, there was a clear
preference for virtual crowd noise with an average of 58 minutes per viewer (compared to 45
minutes for no crowd noise).
Looking at viewers who watched only some of the coverage without crowd noise (3-15 minutes), 55
per cent subsequently switched to watching with the virtual crowd noise. However, the switching did
not go the other way – just 14 per cent of viewers who watched only some of the footage with virtual
crowd noise (3-15 minutes) subsequently went on to watch without crowd noise.
However, there is evidence to suggest that a significant population exists that prefers watching with
no crowd noise. Out of the 2.14 million viewers who were watching the virtual crowd noise coverage
of Man City v Arsenal at kick-off (the second match post lockdown), around 10% switched to the no
crowd noise coverage during the match and stayed for the duration of the match. Furthermore, over
3/5ths of those who were watching the no crowd noise coverage at kick-off stayed with that
coverage through to the end of the match.
Summer football proves to be a big draw – will this change in coming weeks?
The 19 matches broadcast so far have seen the Premier League pick up where it left off, with strong
audiences for Sky Sports. This is not perhaps surprising, but it was far from certain that viewers
would return in such large numbers given the glut of live matches, the unusual time of year for the
competition, the lack of live crowds and the recent good weather in the UK. The unusual broadcast
landscape, with the addition of live coverage on free-to-air channels for the first time in Premier
League history, has propelled viewing to unprecedented heights, breaking both the all-time peak
audience and 1 minute reach records.
One caveat to the impressive viewing figures is the continuing lockdown on public gatherings in
pubs, clubs, etc. in the UK, meaning that viewers who may previously have watched matches out-of-
home (and hence not been included in the viewing figures) are now watching from their sofas and
are being picked up in the TV Audience Measurement figures.
It remains to be seen to what extent viewership will remain high if lockdown restrictions are eased,
especially after Liverpool have secured what seems to be their inevitable title win and other sports
make their gradual return to our screens.
However, the fact that Sky’s strongest audiences have come for matches involving the clubs with
biggest fan bases (Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham) suggests
that the primary motivator for watching football on TV is still supporting your club, a factor that is
unlikely to change whatever the prevailing conditions.
Source: BARB / Publicis Sport and Entertainment
Notes – Whistle-to-whistle audiences based on the average audience for two hours immediately
following kick-off.
The audiences for simulcast matches on Sky Sports channels have been aggregated.
