EBU: 280 million watch Euro 2022

UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 reached over 280 million people across European Broadcasting Union member nations, the organisation has revealed.

The EBU said that its members broadcast a cumulative total of more than 1,200 hours of the landmark tournament which saw England emerge triumphant to claim its first ever women’s international tournament win.

The EBU is is made up of 112 member organisations from 55 countries, and 31 associate members from a further 20 countries

As previously revealed by the BBC, the final broke the record UK audience for a women’s football match with a peak audience of 17.4 million and 5.9 million streams on the BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app. It is the most-watched TV programme of the year in the UK so far.

England’s opponents in the final, Germany, had an even larger audience as 21.8 million tuned in on ARD to watch the seven-time champions. Its viewing share averaged 64.8%, and it was the most watched women’s football match in Germany of all time.

The average viewing share for the final of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 across all transmitting EBU Members was over 24%. Across the tournament, viewership was particularly strong in the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Austria.

However, there was no one nation more impressive than Iceland, where the final attracted an average of 51,900 viewers – representing a 98.2% viewing share of the available audience.

Other highlights included 2.4 million viewers in Spain of its quarter-final defeat to England, and Sweden’s peak of 2 million viewers for its quarter final victory over Belgium.

Stefan-Eric Wildemann, head of football at Eurovision Sport, said: “These viewing figures are truly impressive, and are backed up by some great numbers for UEFA Women’s EURO coverage on digital channels. They reflect the huge surge in the popularity of women’s football and of women’s sport in general, made possible by the unrivalled reach and quality of our Members’ free-to-air coverage.”