Under-21 Euros: England youngsters chalk up wins for Channel 4
Channel 4’s punt on England at the men’s Under-21 Euros has already paid off before Saturday’s final, with strong viewing figures for the Young Lions’ knockout games.
England’s semi-final win over the Netherlands on Wednesday evening was the most popular programming on UK TV at the time.
The 2-1 victory over the Dutch, secured by two goals from Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott attracted a peak linear audience, which does not include streaming, of 1.8m and an average audience for the whole three-hour broadcast of just under 1m.
Channel 4 chiefs have banked on England’s Under-21s pulling in younger viewers and almost one in four 18-34-year-olds tuned in to the semi-final coverage.
The result set up a final against Germany, conquerors of France in the other semi-final, where England will be aiming to lift the trophy for the second U21 Euros in a row.
England’s quarter-final win over Spain – a repeat of the 2023 final – achieved even better viewing figures, helped by its Saturday prime time slot.
Channel 4’s coverage of the 3-1 victory attracted a peak audience of 1.9m and an average of 1.2m for the broadcast, which aired from 7.35pm to 10.25pm.
It was watched by more 16 to 34 year olds than any other channel between those times, with 19.4 per cent of that age-group watching the programme.
Why Channel 4 is showing England Under-21s
Channel 4 bought the exclusive live rights to England’s games at the tournament in Slovakia following the success of showing the final two years ago.
Stars of that team included Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon, Morgan Gibbs-White and Curtis Jones, who have all since progressed to the senior squad.
It continued the channel’s sports strategy of opportunistically acquiring big one-off events to complement its flagship coverage of the Paralympics and Formula 1.
“When England got to the final of the previous tournament we put it on Channel 4, and it was a brilliant game,” head of sport Pete Andrews told City PM earlier this month.
“We know that young people like to watch young people play. That younger audience is sometimes harder for television to get.
“That’s a really appealing thing, and it’s really good football. We’re all interested in who the breakout stars are and hoping England do a good job for us as well.”