SBS’s World Cup quarter-final coverage claimed the two top spots in Sunday’s TV ratings, headlined by an extra time nail-biter between England and Norway, and Argentina’s 3-1 win over the 10 men of Switzerland.
England’s clash with Norway was the most-watched TV program of the weekend, pulling a total TV reach of 3,7 million and a total TV average 2.1 million. more than one million (1.23 million) watched the game via the BVOD SBS On Demand.
After falling behind to a Norwegian wonder strike from Andreas Schjelderup (which was probably an attempted cross that deceived Jordan Pickford), Jude Bellingham pulled one back after the referee failed to see the football strike a spider cam wire, dropping the ball neatly into England’s path. In extra time, Bellingham pounced on a howler by goalkeeper Ørjan Nyland to send England through to their fourth World Cup semi-final.
In Argentina’s quarter-final against Switzerland, the defending champions benefitted from Swiss striker Breel Embolo being sent off for diving at a crucial juncture to run out 3-1 winners.
That match drew a national reach of 3,192,000 and an average audience of 1,723,000, with a BVOD average audience of 971,000. The result have set up a blockbuster semi-final between Argentina and England, with the reigning champions now standing between England and brining football home.
In prime time, Seven’s Farmer Wants A Wife continues to do the business, pulling a national reach of 1,957,000 and an average audience of 1,037,000.
Nine wasn’t far behind with Lego Masters: Bricktactular, where teams brought DC heroes and villains to life using characters and signature colours to brick-build an epic superhero story. It recorded a national reach of 1,746,000 and an average audience of 615,000.
On ABC, Race Around The World had a national reach of 887,000 and an average audience of 489,000. Ten’s top performer was MasterChef Australia, now down to its final 10 contestants, which pulled a national reach of 1,064,000 and an average audience of 661,000.
Saturday
SBS’s World Cup coverage topped day with the Spain vs Belgium with a national reach of 1,415,000 and an average audience of 660,000, which saw Spain advance to the semi finals. That was followed closely by Nine’s rerun of The Notebook which drew in a national reach of 1,200,000 and an average audience of 240,000.
SBS had a monopoly on weekend ratings with the France v Morocco match claiming the top spot on Friday. It boasted a national reach of 2,081,000 and an average audience of 1,003,000.
