Posted: Mon., Jul. 7, 2008, 7:25am PT

Wimbledon final nets huge aud for BBC

12.7 million tune in for epic showdown

By Steve Clarke

Sunday’s epic Wimbledon men’s tennis final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal attracted one of the year’s biggest TV audiences in the U.K.

At its peak the match was seen by 12.7 million viewers who tuned in to BBC flagship channel, BBC1. It netted an average of 7.4 million.

The showdown, which Nadal won, was the longest men’s final in Wimbledon’s history.

The match, played for four hours and 48 minutes, caused severe disruption to BBC1’s schedule. Shows were switched to sister station BBC2 to enable the main channel to stick with the tennis, a British obsession during Wimbledon.