ITV's audience for its Flat season coverage in 2019 has shown the best performance to date since horse racing came onto ITV with a 13.5% increase year on year.
On average the viewing figures across ITV [main channel] and ITV4 rose by 57,500 per broadcast for Flat meetings for the season from May 4 through to October 19, an increase of 13.5%. Share also grew by 18.5%.
The ITV main channel coverage grew 21% with an average of 645,000 watching each live show compared to 533,000 in 2018, with share also up to 9% in 2019 from 7.4% in 2018, a 21.5% increase.
On ITV4, coverage grew 1% with an average of 308,000 watching each show compared to 305,000 in 2018 with share up 13% from 3.9% in 2018 to 4.4% in 2019.
ITV Racing's Flat season performance has included significant increases in the big events on ITV.
"10 million watched England win the Rugby World Cup semi-final won over New Zealand on Saturday and that shows the power of terrestrial television," said Ed Chamberlin.
"I'm delighted we're going in the right direction with ITV Racing and bucking virtually every television trend. The figures for 2019 on the Flat are really encouraging and something we hope to build on for the jumps season."
Audience figures for Royal Ascot yielded a 19% average audience increase year on year at 859,000 and several seven-year audience highs. Average peak at 1.25 million was the highest since 2012 and share also grew to an average of 12.4%, again the highest average share across the week since 2012.
ITV Racing’s peak viewing figure for the Investec Derby 2019 was on a par with 2018 with almost 1.75 million people watching the race, with 940,000 tuning in to see Enable’s historic attempt at a third Arc.
The other key festivals - Qatar Goodwood Festival and Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival - also posted increased averages from 2018.