ITV'S coverage of the 2022 Cheltenham festival drew in a record audience share for the broadcaster.

The coverage presented by Ed Chamberlin, Francesca Cumani and Olie Bell attracted 17 percent of ALL people watching TV across the week on average.

That's up from an audience share of 15.2 percent in 2021 and 14.3 percent in 2020.

ITV revealed their numbers peaked for Friday's Gold Cup, with almost 20 percent of TV viewers having their screens set to watch Rachael Blackmore romp to victory on A Plus Tard.

An average of just over one million people watched Friday's action unfold, with over 1.6million people tuned in for the Gold Cup.

Tiger Roll's retirement in the Cross Country Chase also drew in 1.6 million viewers, as the dual Grand National winner was denied a fairytale farewell by stablemate Delta Work.

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Average viewing figures for the week stood at 967,000, compared to 1.1million in 2021 and 922,000 in 2020.

2021 was a lockdown year though, resulting in higher viewing figures as people were forced to stay at home.

Meanwhile the peak average viewing figures across the festival were 1.5million, up 11 percent from 2020.

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An average of 965,000 viewers tuned in for the opening day of the festival on Tuesday, with that number rising to just over a million on Wednesday.

Thursday's average audience fell to 866,000, before shooting back up to over a million for Gold Cup day on Friday.

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