The Euros finally hit our TV screens on 11th June, after a year’s delay because of the global coronavirus pandemic.

Because of the restrictions with crowd size and the distances between the 11 venues hosting matches, this tournament has been largely a televised event. All the 51 matches have been shown by either BBC or ITV.

The nation has been gripped, so far, with the viewing figures showing some of the largest TV audience in years.

Over 20m individuals tuned into BBC1 to watch England beat rivals Germany on 29th June at 17.00. This was then, the biggest TV audience of the year so far. What were the children doing whilst this game was on, we wonder? Viewing data (BARB 2021) reports 95% of the possible children’s 4-15 audience (almost 2.5m), tuned in to watch England win the match 2-0. It is clear from the viewing numbers that this is an event being enjoyed by all age’s groups. On 14th June, many schools in Scotland replaced normal lessons with the football match so children could enjoy the Scotland v Czech Republic match which kicked off in school time.

England’s amazing 4-0 win over Ukraine (3rd July) was watched by an audience of 20.9 million people (individuals) on the BBC in the UK, beating the England and Germany audience.  Of the possible audience, 81.8% tuned in to the match. Despite a later kick off at 8pm, 96% of all children watching TV at that time tuned into the game (c2m) and 95% of children aged 4-9 (almost 800,000) stayed up to see England’s victory.

Last night’s game blew both previous games viewing numbers out of the water. With a mammoth 25.7m individuals watching the game at its peak on ITV, 5m more than Saturday’s game. The audience included 2.5m children who all watched England beat Denmark 2-1 after extra time. This children’s audience equating to 98% of all children who were watching TV at 21.15 were watching the game.

While the numbers are massive, they are still below the 27.1 million viewers who watched Boris Johnson’s first COVID-19 lockdown statement and is also below the 27.3 million people watched the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.

So perhaps the reports of TV’s decline have been overstated, at least they would be if we had viewing events of this magnitude every week! It does serve however as a timely reminder going into Q3/Q4 of the power of the TV screen to bring families together, and whilst not on the same scale opportunities still exist in market to reach families cost effectively. To find out what might work for your brands, get in touch today.