England U21s beat Club World Cup in TV battle between Channel 4 and 5

Telegraph

4 hours ago

England's Under-21 upstarts are outshining the senior stars of the Club World Cup in a free-to-air TV ratings battle between Channel 4 and 5.
A peak audience of 1.6 million for Chelsea's opening 2-0 win against Los Angeles remains 5's highest for the controversial Fifa tournament so far. Channel 4's U21 coverage has now overshadowed that high mark, however, with a peak of 1.8 million tuning in to England's semi-final win over Netherlands on Wednesday.
The broadcaster, whose previous coups include Emma Raducanu's US Open triumph in 2021, claims the fixture was the most popular programme on all channels in the teatime slot on Wednesday evening. A total of 24 per cent of the key target growth audience of 18 to 34 year-old viewers were watching, with an average audience of just under 0.9 million.
Channel 4 later disclosed that England's quarter-final victory over Spain was its highest audience of all, with a two million peak audience. Those numbers do not include those streaming the match online. Group stage England matches, meanwhile, reached a peak of 1.3 million.
The other semi-final – which saw Germany beat France – featured on streaming channel Channel 4seven and had a peak audience of over 300,000.
Executives at 5, meanwhile, confirmed privately that Chelsea's Group D opening match, which captured a 15 per cent share of the viewing audience, remains the best audience so far.
For both broadcasters, rights packages were picked up for nominal fees and are said to have been in line with expectations. The Chelsea fixture averaged 1.4 million viewers, with Lee Sears, president of Paramount International Advertising Sales, describing numbers as a 'standout moment for 5, driving big numbers including new and hard to reach younger audiences to the channel'.
'It's a clear example of how premium live sport can outperform our channel average and deliver real value to both viewers and advertisers,' Sears added. 'We're delighted with the performance of the tournament so far for us,' a 5 spokeswoman added when contacted by Telegraph Sport.
UK rights values for the Club World Cup and U21s are dwarfed by the huge fees commanded by the Premier League from Sky and TNT.
The new four year domestic cycle is worth £6.7 billion and begins after a season in which viewer numbers fell by 10 per cent as Liverpool breezed to the title. Under Channel 5's sub-licensing deal for the Club World Cup, it is broadcasting 23 of the tournament's 63 matches free-to-air in the UK. DAZN, the main rights-holder, is showing every fixture free on its platforms. The tournament itself has received criticism, not helped by poor attendances inside stadiums for some matches.
While 5 audiences are likely to grow in the Club World Cup latter stages, Channel 4's hopes are now resting entirely on Saturday's mouth-watering final against Germany. England are one match away from winning back-to-back Euros after Harvey Elliott's brilliant double set up the showdown in Bratislava.
England won the tournament for the first time in 39 years in 2023, and Lee Carsley's side could now match the feat of successive triumphs in 1982 and 1984.