ITV viewing figures slightly down for final two days after record festival start

A combination of increasing concern over the spread of coronavirus and the lack of a Thursday "golden hour" may have contributed to a slight downturn in ITV's viewing figures on the final two days of the Cheltenham Festival, after the channel had posted a strong start to the week.

In particular a record-breaking set of numbers for Wednesday's coverage – which began on ITV4 and then transferred to the main channel at the conclusion of budget coverage – ensured the week as a whole was only marginally down on last year's record figures.

Wednesday's Queen Mother Champion Chase card averaged 962,000 across the afternoon transmission, remarkably outstripping the 935,000 average on Gold Cup day.

Share of the total television audience was also higher on Wednesday than Friday – 15.1 per cent as opposed to 14.3 per cent – and, while the peak number watching the Gold Cup of 1.44 million was the highest of the week, Al Boum Photo's triumph was still watched by nearly 200,000 fewer people than tuned in to see his first triumph off the back of front page coverage generated by Bryony Frost, Frodon and the Paisley Park team.

Rising interest in the virus as the week progressed meant ITV Racing faced unusually strong competition from rolling news channels and overall, executives can be satisfied with a set of figures that are well ahead of 2017 and 2018, even if they cumulatively fell short of 2019's fireworks.

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