Setanta's England football coverage attracts 1.4m viewers

by Nikki Sandison, Brand Republic 11-Sep-08, 11:10

LONDON - Setanta pulled in its best ever live audience last night as around 1.4m viewers tuned in to watch the World Cup qualifier between England and Croatia, while around 240,000 watched its late night free highlights, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The coverage of England's 4-1 win in Croatia, marked by a Theo Walcott hat trick, peaked at 1.5m viewers and a 6.8% share of the audience between 9.30pm and 9.45pm.

Setanta's previous best audience was its coverage of last week's match between England and Andorra, which peaked at 927,000.

Setanta rejected ITV's offer of £500,000 for the highlights but at the last minute made them available free to view by unencrypting its Setanta 1 channel.

The 11.30pm-12.30am England highlights package attracted around 240,000 viewers, peaking at midnight with 281,000 viewers and a 4.8% share.

TV chef Ainsley Harriott's exploration of his family history in the West Indies in BBC One's 'Who Do You Think You Are' won the primetime slot last night with 6.4m viewers and a 28.5% share of the 9pm-10pm audience.

Harriott was shocked to discover that his great great great grandmother was a white slave owner who owned 15 slaves and his great great great great grandmother was a prostitute who owned nine brothels.

It beat the second part of ITV1's 'Lost in Austen', starring Jemima Rooper, which dropped 700,000 viewers since its debut of 3.8m last week to 3.1m viewers (13.6%).

Channel 4's 'The 9/11 Hotel' documentary about the Marriott World Trade Center hotel, which stood beneath the Twin Towers, netted 2.7m viewers and a 11.9% share of the 9pm to 10pm audience.

Five's airing of the Bruce Willis film 'Hudson Hawk' attracted 880,000 viewers and a 4.3% share of the 9pm to 11pm audience, beating BBC Two's drama 'A Number', starring Rhys Ifans, which netted 561,000 viewers (2.4%).

Earlier in the evening a new series of 'The Restaurant', in which nine couples compete to become partners with Raymond Blanc, pulled in 2.3m viewers and a 10.3% share of the 8pm to 9pm audience.