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LONDON — Andy Murray Mania continues to drive Wimbledon ratings for the BBC.
The U.K. public broadcaster said Thursday that the Scottish star’s five-set quarterfinals win on Wednesday drew a five-minute audience peak of 10.4 million.
That marked the biggest BBC audience to-date for this year’s edition of the tennis tournament.
The 10.4 million peak was 3.3 million viewers above the high for the comparable Wimbledon Wednesday last year when Murray didn’t play. It was also up from a peak audience of 5.7 million BBC viewers who had watched Murray’s fourth-round victory on Monday.
The hard-fought victory on Wednesday night allowed Murray to move on to the semifinals amid intensifying media coverage about the local hero’s chances of winning the Wimbledon trophy this year after last year losing to Roger Federer in the final.
As many as 16.9 million people in the U.K. watched that dramatic match last year, making for the highest British audience peak figure for any Wimbledon final in more than 20 years. The average audience for the final came in at 11.4 million last year.
Peak ratings for this year’s edition of the tennis tournament have been up on days featuring matches from the Scottish star, while other days have brought in lower peak audiences.
E-mail: Georg.Szalai@THR.com
Twitter: @georgszalai
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