ITV tops Channel 4 audience share in first year

ITV made a solid if unspectacular start back at the Derby after an absence of 29 years, with the highest share of viewers watching television on Saturday afternoon in the last five years.

Saturday’s ITV racing average audience was 820,000, which represented an 11.3 per cent share of those watching television, topping Channel 4’s best percentage share in its four-year tenure.

The peak audience figure was 1.7 million compared to 1.374 million a year ago on C4, which achieved an 8.8 per cent audience share with an average of 628,000 last year.

A peak 1.946 million watched the 2013 Derby, which was won by another Aidan O’Brien colt, Ruler Of The World, and was broadcast on C4. The average was 834,000, representing 10.7 per cent of the total television audience.

ITV still has plenty of ground to make up against the BBC coverage, which ended in 2012 with a 3.3 million peak watching Camelot win in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year. The average audience was 1.8 million, 20.1 per cent of the total.