The FA Cup Third Round Proper
Saturday 7, 8 January 2006
Winning clubs receive £40,000




Viewing figures for this year’s FA Cup have attracted higher audiences than their equivalent televised fixtures last season with a 26% increase on 2004-05.

The peak audience of 8.4m for the Luton v Liverpool match was only bettered last season by the Manchester United v Arsenal FA Cup final.

Leicester City v Spurs saw an audience peak of 5.9m with 4.0m viewers tuning in to see Hull v Aston Villa.

Audience share for all the matches also increased 0.8 percentage points on last year’s coverage at the same stage in the competition with one in four viewers watching live FA Cup football.

The two replays that will be subject to live televised coverage have been confirmed as:

Tuesday 17 January 2006 - Leeds United v Wigan Athletic, 7.45pm on Sky Sports

Wednesday 18 January 2006 - Manchester United v Burton Albion, 8.05pm on BBC

The FA Television fee is £150,000 per club.