The audience peaked at 458,000 in the final five minutes of the match, when Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard scored Liverpool’s winner.
By comparison, rival BSkyB attracted an average 1.14 million viewers for the three live matches it showed over the opening weekend, including 1.5 million for the first-choice match of the weekend, Manchester United-Reading. Sky has a much bigger subscriber base than Setanta – with about six million signing up to Sky Sports channels against Setanta's 1.8 million UK subscribers.
Setanta’s opening day viewing figures are particularly impressive given the stiff competition for sports viewers from rival BSkyB during the match. Setanta's Villa-Liverpool match (5.15pm to 7.15pm) clashed with a live League Championship match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Watford on Sky Sports 1 (watched by an average 302,000 from 5.20pm to 7.20pm), the conclusion of the third day of the third cricket Test between England and India on Sky Sports 2 (with 236,000 viewers between 5pm and 6.30pm) and the England-France rugby union World Cup warm-up match on Sky Sports 3 (431,000 viewers from 5pm to 6.45pm).
This analysis is provided by the acclaimed fortnightly newsletter, TV Sports Markets, which specialises in exclusive and in-depth news and data analysis from the television sports rights business. TV Sports Markets also publishes reports, including the new UK Football and Rugby Viewing 2006-07, which details match-by-match viewing, audience analysis and rights-deal information of all domestic leagues and cup competitions, European tournaments and national team matches involving UK football and rugby union teams.
