The BBC’s first ever live Premier League match garnered a peak viewership of 3.9m, narrowly missing out as the most viewed match in the competition’s history.
Crystal Palace’s 2-0 victory over Bournemouth, which was the first of four games to be aired by the public service broadcaster, recorded a 24.5 per cent audience share and an average viewership of 3.6m.
Saturday’s fixture also recorded high figures on the broadcaster’s other platforms, with the BBC announcing that its coverage of the match drew in nearly 700,000 live programme requests on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.
Despite the match being widely accessible to everybody in the UK, as alluded to prior, the fixture failed to beat viewership records with April 2012’s Manchester Derby recording a peak audience of 4m.
Premier League viewership continues to soar following its restart last week with Aston Villa vs Sheffield United, which was the first English top-division match since 9 March, generating a peak viewership of 2.7m.
Nevertheless, the BBC’s fixture was the most watched Premier League match this week with Arsenal Vs Manchester City on Wednesday recording a peak audience of 3.4m. The clash with last year’s champions showed a 94 per cent increase in Premier League viewership, compared to the 2019/20 season average.
The Premier League has revealed all of its remaining fixtures, however, only matches up to gameweek 35 have been allocated broadcast partners so far. All fixtures will be split between Sky Sports, BT Sport, BBC and Amazon.
Along with the BBC, Sky Sports and Amazon have revealed that some, if not all, of its allocated matches will be available for free. Amazon prime viewers will get to watch its four allocated fixtures, however, the firm has also announced that it will air its matches on Twitch, a first for the online free streaming service.
In addition, Sky Sports announced that 20 games will be available to watch on the company’s free-to-air channel Pick with its first match being yesterday’s Merseyside Derby between Liverpool and Everton.
