ITV wins World Cup ratings battle with BBC in tournament’s first week

ITV is winning the UK television ratings battle after the first week of the World Cup. Viewing figures obtained by the Guardian from Barb, which measures audience numbers, show the commercial channel had four of the five highest TV audiences, topped by England’s 4-2 win over Croatia. England’s victory in Dallas attracted a peak audience of 15.4 million on ITV and an average of more than 10 million, the highest UK TV viewing figures of the year. ITV also had the second-highest viewing figures on TV of the first round of group games, with the opening match between the co-hosts Mexico and South Africa attracting a peak audience of 7.7 million and a match average of 6.6 million. The BBC’s live coverage of France v Senegal on Tuesday obtained a peak audience of 6.7 million and match average of 5.9 million. ITV’s coverage of Spain v Cape Verde and the Netherlands v Japan completed the top five, with peak audiences of 6.1 million and 6 million respectively. The Barb viewing figures include those watching on main channels and streaming services through a television but not those watching on a laptop or a mobile phone. When viewers watching the BBC stream on laptops and mobiles are added, its peak viewing figures for France v Senegal increased to 7.6 million, and it enjoyed peak audiences of 6.7 million and 6.5 million respectively for Portugal v the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Belgium v Egypt . …