BT Sport suffer disappointing Bundesliga figures – beaten by Midsomer Murders

BT Sport viewing suffered disappointing viewing figures for the Bundesliga – and were even beaten by Midsomer Murders.

Television figures showed that a peak of 652,000 – average of 500,000 – tuned in to the big return of Borussia Dortmund’s win over Schalke on Saturday.

The game had been trumpeted as the grand return of football but actually only came in third in the top 20 of non-terrestrial shows on Saturday.

It was behind Most Wanted – Lewis with 886,000 viewers and detective show Midsomer Murders got a peak of 836,000.

Incredibly, BT Sport’s second game on Saturday evening between Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Monchengladbach only got 192,000.

The most popular show on all channels on Saturday was Britain’s Got Talent with 7.9million viewers.

BT Sport is a subscription channel, they and Sky do not reveal their number of subscribers but it was recorded that 11.3m viewers watched the all-English Champions League final in June 2019 when BT had the rights.

Dortmund are arguably the second biggest team in Germany, it was a Saturday afternoon and they had driven a lot of publicity after two months without games.

And yet it must be seen as a disappointment and raise question marks whether fans do want games back, although the live coverage was a big hit in Germany.

There is already an ongoing row about TV rights and the Premier League with clubs facing a £762m bill if they do not complete the season and they are still facing up to having to pay £340m because it is no longer the same in terms of kick-off times and games.

The BBC could get five free-to-air games if the Government decide that all games must be televised.

Non-terrestrial TV figures

Top 20 Non-Terrestrial Programmes (000s, Share, Peak 000s) [Target Audience 000s, Share]

• 19:00 ITV3 – ITV3 Most Wanted – Lewis (774, 4.3% , 886) [398 ABC1 Adults 4.9%]
• 21:00 ITV3 – Midsomer Murders (759, 4.8% , 836) [344 ABC1 Adults 4.7%]
• 14:00 BT Sport 1 – Live Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (500, 5.8% , 652) [43 Kids 8.9%]
• 21:00 Quest – The Repair Shop (497, 2.9% , 633) [265 Men 3.4%]
• 19:15 ITV2 – Minions (493, 2.9% , 556) [123 16-34s 6.8%]
• 19:10 ITV2 – FYI Daily (477, 3.0% , 477) [124 16-34s 7.4%]
• 20:00 ITV2 – Sherlock Holmes (444, 2.3% , 513) [96 16-34s 4.3%]
• 21:10 ITV2 – Sherlock Holmes (436, 2.7% , 549) [72 16-34s 4.3%]
• 21:00 Film4 – Disturbia (432, 2.8% , 504) [22 16-34s 1.3%]
• 21:05 ITV2 – FYI Daily (430, 2.2% , 430) [93 16-34s 3.9%]
• 18:10 ITV2 – Minions (410, 2.8% , 531) [88 16-34s 5.7%]
• 17:20 BBC News – BBC News (365, 3.0% , 371) [144 ABC1 Adults 2.8%]
• 18:00 BBC News – BBC News (363, 2.6% , 374) [132 ABC1 Adults 2.2%]
• 17:00 ITV3 – Midsomer Murders (350, 2.6% , 582) [164 ABC1 Adults 2.9%]
• 21:00 E4 – Taken 2 (344, 2.1% , 457) [47 16-34s 2.7%]
• 11:30 BBC News – Dateline London (320, 5.0% , 371) [159 ABC1 Adults 6.2%]
• 22:05 5STAR – John Wick (314, 2.3% , 369)
• 18:45 Film4 – Cowboys & Aliens (307, 1.7% , 428) [25 16-34s 1.3%]
• 23:10 ITV2 – Family Guy (305, 3.4% , 328) [131 16-34s 12.5%]
• 21:00 BBC 4 – State of Happiness (305, 1.7% , 336) [222 ABC1 Adults 2.7%]
• 17:30 BBC News – Newsbeat Documentaries (301, 2.3% , 365) [115 ABC1 Adults 2.1%]