FA Cup TV Viewing Figures Increase Despite Low Attendances

Despite attendances at English soccer’s FA Cup clashes dropping way below that of the league, the competition received a huge boost after the viewing figures for the weekend’s action was revealed.

English Premier League giants Manchester United’s narrow win over non-league Crawley Town drew in an audience share of 33 per cent, exceeding that of Arsenal’s Champions League win against Barcelona, which received 31 per cent of the audience. 

The match, covered on ITV1, drew in almost 8.5 million viewers at its peak, while the following day, Manchester City v Notts County attracted over 4 million viewers to the screen. 

The viewership on ESPN for the FA Cup round also showed impressively; Everton v Chelsea and Leyton Orient v Arsenal both received peak audiences of over 800,000.