Channel 5 scores with football

Channel 5 attracted its biggest audience to date when 5 million viewers tuned in to watch England's crucial World Cup match in Poland, the station reported yesterday.

It said that 25 per cent of all viewers were watching the exclusive live coverage, giving the station its best ever daily viewing share of 10 per cent. The previous peak was for a showing of the film Mrs Doubtfire, which attracted 2.85 million viewers.

David Elstein, chief executive, said: "This is a great result and exceeds all our expectations. The decision to bid for this match was made last year and has been fully vindicated by the 5 million people who tuned in." The station is said to have paid pounds 1m for exclusive live coverage. Match report and analysis, Sport tabloid