THE GAA’S championship broadcasts on RTÉ are holding up reasonably well in comparison to the World Cup, which is now in its second week.

The biggest audience of the past 11 days since the soccer began in South Africa was the Cork-Kerry Munster football replay in Páirc Uí­ Chaoimh, which drew a viewership of 564,000 last Sunday week, bettering the 503,000 who tuned in to England’s first match, against the USA on the previous evening.

Explaining the data, RTÉ Press and Publicity Officer Laura Fitzgerald cautioned that precise comparisons were difficult.

“The figures are average viewing figures for the actual match times and the share figure,” she said, “which is the percentage of people watching television at the time who tune in to the programme.

“It’s important to note that these figures are for matches at different times, different days and different channels and so would not be directly comparable. The World Cup takes place over a packed schedule of four weeks while the championship is weeks away from its climax.”

Perhaps surprisingly, of the two Ulster championship matches shown in the 5.15pm slot on Saturday evening, Cavan versus Fermanagh proved more popular than Down versus Tyrone although both matches were also shown on BBC 2 Northern Ireland.

SATURDAY, JUNE 13TH

South Korea-Greece 144,000   30%

Argentina-Nigeria 284,000   42%

England-USA 503,000   40%

Fermanagh-Cavan 230,000  29%

SUNDAY, JUNE 14TH

Algeria-Slovenia 150,000  22%

Serbia-Ghana 127,000  12%

Cork-Kerry 564,000  56%

SATURDAY JUNE 19TH

Cameroon-Denmark 286,000  28%

Tyrone-Down 200,000  28%

SUNDAY, JUNE 20TH

Sunday Game  205,000  19%

World Cup Round-Up  76,000  12%