This sharp audience growth has been driven by the World Cup being held in Germany this year, whereas the 2002 tournament was held in Japan/Korea.
This has meant that matches have been scheduled at far more convenient times of day for in-home viewers this year, with games in the afternoon/evening. Most matches four years ago were broadcast in the morning.
The most watched match in the UK in World Cup 2006 so far was England's game against Trinidad & Tobago, where England won 2-0 with goals from Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard, which drew an average programme audience of 11.3m people. This was the most watched TV sporting event of the year to date, beating the year's previous highest rating sports programme, which was Barcelona v Arsenal in the Champions League final. That was watched by an average programme audience of 10.5m people across ITV1 and Sky Sports 1.
However, while average UK audiences across the first 20 matches are significantly higher than four years ago, the number of in-home viewers for England's matches has fallen compared with World Cup 2002.
England's first game in 2002, a 1-1 draw with Sweden, was watched by 12.6m individuals. That was 43% more people than the 8.8m who watched England's 1-0 victory over Paraguay in their first game of World Cup 2006.
England's second match in 2002, a 1-0 victory over Argentina, was also watched by more people than their second game of 2006, a 2-0 defeat of Trinidad & Tobago. The former drew an average programme audience of 11.9m, which was 5% more than watched the England v Trinidad game.
UK in-home viewing figures for England's first two games have arguably been depressed by a spell of exceptionally warm weather, which has encouraged fans to watch out-of-home.
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