ITV Racing hits eight-year high for viewers on first two days of Royal Ascot

ITV Racing pulled in the largest average audience and share of television viewers for eight years on the first two days of Royal Ascot this year.

Over 1.1 million viewers have watched each of the first two days of the behind-closed-doors fixture, with an average on day one of 909,000 and on day two of 942,000, representing 12.5 per cent and 12.7 per cent respectively of the television audience.

ITV, along with Sky Sports Racing, are the only two television broadcasters able to show the action from Ascot this week, and Ed Chamberlin, lead presenter for ITV Racing, is pleased people have been engaging with the programmes.

Speaking at Ascot on Thursday, he said: “I thought in terms of numbers this week we might suffer a bit as we all know that Ascot is all about the Queen, the pageantry, the pomp, the colour, the food and drink and without that we weren’t sure what it would be like.

“With what’s going on we know a lot of people are at home, but we’re more than delighted the numbers have held up and the averages have been the highest for eight years, so we hope people are enjoying it.”

He added: “We know we won’t get everything right, and there may have been one or two things people didn’t agree with, and we’ll listen to that. We want to have something for everybody.”

Day three of Royal Ascot last year coincided with Frankie Dettori riding a memorable four-timer in the opening four races, potentially presenting a challenge for ITV Racing to match last year’s viewing figures.

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