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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Brendan Hughes

Arlene Foster's GB News coverage of the Twelfth of July 'beats Sky News' in TV ratings battle

GB News has said its live coverage of the Twelfth was its highest-rated programme of the day, beating Sky News in the battle for TV viewing figures.

The hour-long programme, broadcast from 11am on Tuesday and hosted by former DUP leader Arlene Foster, peaked between 11.30am and 11.45am at 98,300 viewers.

In the same period TalkTV had 7,100 viewers, Sky News had 76,500, and the BBC News channel 115,900.

Read more: Review: Arlene Foster's GB News coverage of the Twelfth unfocused and amateurish

The average viewers across the hour were 78,300 for GB News, 4,400 for TalkTV, 59,900 for Sky News, and 124,900 for BBC News, according to BARB figures provided by GB News.

It said the figures relate to TV viewers and do not include the channel's figures via online platforms such as YouTube.

GB News last month announced it would broadcast live from the Orange Order parades in Northern Ireland after the BBC faced a unionist backlash for axing the live segment of its TV coverage.

Dame Arlene was joined by historian Dr Gavin Hughes, former Coronation Street actor Charlie Lawson and GB News reporter Dougie Beattie as the programme focused on the parade in Armagh.

The coverage divided opinion, with many warmly praising GB News for stepping in to provide live coverage and others branding it "cringeworthy".

Meanwhile, BBC NI said its evening highlights programme covering Twelfth parades across Northern Ireland had an almost 10% increase in viewers compared to last year.

But the corporation refused to release the specific figures.

Its hour-long Twelfth highlights programme was broadcast in the prime-time 9pm slot this year, whereas in 2021 the show was aired after the late news at 10.35pm.

A BBC Northern Ireland spokesman said: "We wanted to increase the audience for our evening-time television programme about 12 July demonstrations across the region.

"We've delivered on this objective, with almost 10% more viewers than the equivalent programme last year.

"And we expect this total to increase further as people take the opportunity to watch our 12 July coverage and related programming on BBC iPlayer."

The BBC would routinely release annual viewing figures for top shows such as Strictly Come Dancing.

But it declined to provide TV ratings for its Twelfth coverage, saying that it does not routinely publish viewing figures for individual BBC NI programmes.

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