Big Orange triumph attracts best Gold Cup figure in post-BBC era

ITV executives and racing's rulers will be celebrating a peak audience of 1.3 million viewers for Big Orange's epic battle with Order Of St George, the biggest figure recorded for the Gold Cup since the BBC bade farewell to the meeting in 2012.

After the first two days of the meeting comfortably beat last year's equivalent numbers on Channel 4, ITV's four-hour plus Gold Cup coverage averaged a million viewers, more than double the 433,000 on the equivalent day last year.

The peak of 1.3m equates to 13 per cent audience share, again a significant step up on the 751,000 who tuned in to watch Order Of St George triumph 12 months ago.

Royal Ascot's second day on ITV drew an average audience of 800,000 being almost 50 per cent up on Channel 4's 538,000 12 months ago.

The televised live sport landscape has undergone recent change, principally through the move of the pre-Wimbledon tennis championship at the Queen's Club, shown by the BBC, into Royal Ascot week.