BBC takes five times ITV's World Cup final viewers
The BBC smashed ITV in a British broadcaster World Cup Final showdown that saw both media outlets simultaneously broadcast the match.
Alan Hanson will no longer be part of the BBC's football team
Over 20 million UK viewers watched the final with the BBC averaging 13.1m and ITV managing 2.9m.
The BBC took a greater audience due to several reasons. The broadcast was Alan Hansen’s last before leaving the show, there were no adverts on the public service broadcaster's channel and throughout the tournament, many viewers have been critical of ITV presenter Adrian Chiles' broadcasting style.
Across UK TV coverage, the BBC's audience share was 50.3 per cent, accounting for about three out of four football viewers, whereas ITV's was 12 per cent.
The UK viewing figures for the final hit a peak of 21m but Uruguay’s defeat of England remains the country’s most watched match.
Data is not yet available to signify if worldwide viewers of the final surpass the 909 million who watched the 2010 final but there was a massive 35m tweets about the event.
In Germany, a massive 41.89 tuned into the game – a further survey says around 12m watched the game in a public space. This accounts for almost three quarters of the nation’s population.
Further records were broken with 5.5m Belgians tuning into the Belgian vs South Korea game and 12.4m Dutch catching the Netherlands vs Argentina game – this match was supplemented by an impressive 158,192 tweets.
The BBC said it was "delighted” and was "particularly pleased" to have reached such a wide audience for the final.
"Brazil 2014 has really captivated the nation and we're very proud to deliver this to audiences across the UK."
The 2010 final saw the BBC have a peak of 17.9m viewers whereas last night’s game only pulled in 16.7m.
The above data was provided by Platform for European Promotion of TV - an informal grouping of European broadcasters’ trade bodies and sales houses, including Act, SNPTV, and Thinkbox.