Merseyside derby breaks Sky Sports viewing record with 5.5 million peak

More than five million people watched Sunday's Merseyside derby as Sky Sports registered record viewing figures in the United Kingdom for a live Premier League match.

Everton's goalless draw at home to Liverpool peaked at 5.5m and averaged 5m for the 7pm kick-off shown on a number of channels across the broadcaster's network.

The match was shown free-to-air with a 1.9m average on the Pick channel, with 3.1m across Sky Sports channels and Sky One.

Sky Sports' previous record was for the 2012 Manchester derby, which was also shown free-to-air, and which attracted an average audience figure of just over 4m.

A number of matches are being shown free-to-air after the government insisted the only way the Premier League could restart was if all the remaining 92 matches were broadcast.

Around a third were freely available to combat the potential issue of fans breaching social distancing guidelines by congregating to watch satellite services or even outside grounds.