Champions League, start with record ratings for Sky
With the new extended formula, the cumulative audience for pay TV exceeded 2.7 million. 'Great start'. For Wednesday there remains competition from Amazon Prime Video (today with exclusive Manchester City-Inter)
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Key points
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Start with a bang for the new Champions League. Certainly not on the sporting side if we think about the Italians, with Juve winning against Psv, but against the bitter debut of AC Milan against Liverpool at San Siro. But on the ratings side Sky spreads data of a 'great start'.
Italian women at the top of ratings in the last 5 years
The first Tuesday of the Champions League, writes Comcast's media company, ended with a total of 2.7 million cumulative viewers. A result, this, including viewings on the 'big screen' and Sky Go. The matches of the Italian teams - which, by Sky's decision, will only be shown on pay and never free-to-air on the Tv8 channel - contributed in no small measure to these numbers. So much so that, writes Sky, 'both Italian teams enter the top 5 of the best ratings of the top European competition in the last 3 years'.
Looking at the numbers, the match between Juventus and Psv - broadcast at 6.45pm on Sky Sport Uno, Sky Sport 252 and Sky Sport 4K - kept 1.122 million average viewers in front of the screens with 2.259 million unique viewers (this is without Sky Go) and a share of 6.2 per cent. As for the match between AC Milan and Liverpool, broadcast at 9pm on the same channels, the match was seen on average by 1.196 million viewers in total audience, with 2.470 million unique viewers and a share of 5.3 per cent.
Interest also for pre and post match
The latest Sky data provides them to clarify the extent to which interest in the matches is also backed up by interest in the pre and post-match in-depth programmes: 643,000 average viewers for the 11pm post-match, hosted by Federica Masolin with comments from Sky Sport talent, and 332,000 average viewers for the pre-match.
European competitions between Sky and Amazon
.All this at the conclusion of a first day that will be followed today by the Wednesday matches of a Champions League that, like the Europa League and Conference League, is a Sky exclusive but with a Wednesday foray on Amazon Prime Video. And in this picture, the bad news for Sky is in the big match between Manchester City and Inter Milan, the Champions League final of 2023, which tonight can only be seen on Prime Video, Amazon's platform that has won the best Wednesday matches exclusively.
