It was heartbreak for Liverpool but Jürgen Klopp’s side’s 3-1 Europa League defeat by Sevilla scored BT Sport’s biggest audience to date with a peak of 3.5 million viewers.
BT Sport’s live coverage of Wednesday night’s final, which the broadcaster made free to non-subscribers on a variety of different platforms including YouTube, drew an average of 1.6 million viewers on BT Sport Europe and another 606,000 viewers at the same time on BT Sport Showcase, a combined audience of 2.2 million.
The combined five-minute peak across both channels was 3.6 million, with a high of 2.6 million watching on BT Sport Europe and another 1 million on BT Sport Showcase.
BT Sport said it was its highest average audience and peak audience to date, Jake Humphrey anchoring the action from Basel, joined by former Liverpool stalwarts Michael Owen and Steve McManaman.
Audiences for the Europa League and Champions League have inevitably taken a tumble since the exclusive live rights were bought by BT in an £897m deal three years ago, beginning with the 2015/2016 season.
Previously the rights were shared by ITV, which broadcast all its games free to air, and pay-TV partner Sky.
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