Northern Ireland

More than one million viewers tune in to RTÉ at peak of thrilling All-Ireland final

The Armagh v Galway final clash was also screened on BBC 2 NI

Armagh during Sunday’s All-Ireland SFC Final at Croke Park in Dublin. PICTURE COLM LENAGHAN
Armagh fans cheering during Sunday’s All-Ireland SFC Final at Croke Park in Dublin. PICTURE: COLM LENAGHAN
By Paul Ainsworth

More than one million viewers tuned in on RTÉ to watch Armagh’s All-Ireland victory, the broadcaster has confirmed.

A peak audience of 1,085,400 watched the match on RTÉ 2 as it reached its conclusion, with Armagh beating Galway with a close final score of 1-11 to 0-13 to claim the Sam Maguire.

The match was shown on RTÉ's The Sunday Game Live, and an average viewership for the whole game was recorded as 889,000.

The match was also shown on BBC 2 Northern Ireland, but no viewing figures for the broadcast have yet been made available.

Sunday’s BBC NI broadcast followed the previous week’s screening of the All-Ireland hurling final, which was available to viewers across the whole of the UK, unlike the football final, which could only be watched by BBC viewers in the north.

Meanwhile, the RTÉ 2 audience represented a 76% share of all those in the Republic watching TV at the time. RTÉ Player streams of the match were up by almost 185,000 streams from last year’s final to a total of 356,416.

RTÉ Group Head of Sport, Declan McBennett, said: “As live sport dominates our screens the draw of the All Ireland finals remain constant. A wonderful day for Armagh Gaels and an enthralling final which made life long memories for those from the Orchard county.”