There was an undisputed winner of the summer of sport, which ended on Sunday night as the most spectacular Paralympics in living memory came to a close. Sport itself, and the unerring way it keeps so many of us watching – especially in a world where TV viewing figures increasingly resemble Tom Daley diving off a 10-metre platform.
The numbers really were staggering: 23.8 million across BBC and ITV for England’s Euro 2024 final defeat, the highest UK audience of the year. The BBC’s Olympics coverage topped the charts for 17 consecutive days, with 5 million to 7 million viewers. Channel 4 also enjoyed Paralympics audiences that regularly hopped over a million.
