Wayne Rooney and Prem stars pull in 4.7 billion TV viewers

Posted Wednesday, October 12, 2011 by The Sun

PREMIER LEAGUE football attracted a staggering 4.7BILLION TV viewers last season.

Global demand to watch stars such as Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Didier Drogba and Steven Gerrard is at a new peak.

Figures released by a leading sports business consultancy reveal that 70 per cent of ALL football fans worldwide are now watching the English game.

The report, commissioned by the Sport+Markt group in Germany, shows that TV coverage of the Premier League reached 643million homes last season — a rise of 11 per cent on the previous season.

The in-home TV audience has now stretched to a record 3.9bn, with a further 777m watching in pubs and bars in every corner of the planet. The biggest market for the English game is in the Asia and Oceania region, where 1.3bn viewers tuned in to watch the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea in 2010-11.

The figures estimate 64 per cent of all Chinese fans now support a Premier League club, while half the football followers in the USA have a favourite English team.

In total, the Premier League accounted for 185,000 hours of global TV coverage last season, making it far and away the most popular sporting competition in the world.

In the UK alone, 629m viewers watched live or highlighted coverage last season, with a further 761m across the rest of Europe.

Andrew Walsh, the Sport+Markt head of international affairs, said: "The explanation for these remarkable figures lies largely in the redistribution of international rights for the start of the new three-year broadcast term last year.

"One main driver of the rise was the switch of the League's broadcast rights in China from pay TV over to terrestrial coverage.

"That has burst open the floodgates in terms of the Premier League's popularity in the world's biggest and fastest-growing market."

A Premier League spokesman said: "Our international fan base and success is helping develop English football at all levels, something we should all be pleased about.

"Whether they are at the ground in person or watching all around the world on TV, fans know what they will get from a Premier League game. They'll see some of the world's best talent in thrilling matches played at packed stadiums."