London club win scooped highest FA final audience since 2007, boosted by late 5.15pm kick-off and gaining 32% share overall

More than 11 million viewers saw the climax to Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Liverpool in the biggest-rating FA Cup final since 2007.

With its audience boosted by a 5.15pm kick-off – later than its traditional 3pm start time – FA Cup Final Live had 5.45 million viewers, a 32% share, between 3.15pm and 7.45pm on ITV1.

Live match coverage averaged 8.9 million viewers, with a 15-minute peak of 10.4 million between 6.45pm and 7pm and a five-minute peak of 11.21 million.

It was the highest audience for the final since Chelsea’s 1-0 over Manchester United in 2007, when it was still broadcast on BBC1, which had a match average of 9.9 million viewers and a 15-minute peak of 11.5 million.

Last year’s final, Manchester City’s 1-0 win over Stoke, averaged 4.3 million (34.9%) with a match average of 6.8 million and a peak of 8.3 million.

More details soon…

All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC and some other channels including Sky1) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”.

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.