7.7 million tune in for closing of Paralympics

An audience of 7.7 million viewers tuned in to see the end of London 2012 and the Paralympics Closing Ceremony.

The peak audience on Channel 4 was 3.5 million fewer than the 11.2 million who watched the Opening Ceremony 10 days earlier, but it still proved to be a huge ratings winner.

The Paralympics coverage helped C4 to become the most-watched channel throughout the day, beating ITV1 and BBC1.

The average audience for the coverage of the Closing Ceremony – from 7pm to 11.10pm – was 5.9 million and represented a quarter of the television audience over that time. The figures peaked at 7.7 million.

Jay Hunt, Channel 4's chief creative officer, said: "Last night's Closing Ceremony was a suitably spectacular end to a fantastic London 2012 Paralympic Games and I'm thrilled that, over the course of the last 11 days, Channel 4's coverage has engaged more people than ever before in disabled sport."

Channel 4 said its coverage of the Games reached 39.9 million people.