Sky Sports has revealed that the 17th January clash between Premier League rivals Liverpool and Manchester United scored the UK pay-TV network's largest ever audience for an event behind a paywall, pulling in an average of 4.5 million viewers, reports, www.sportspromedia.com/.

That peaked during the final five minutes of the 0-0 draw as 4.8 million tuned in for the game's climax. These viewing figures saw the game surpass the April 2012 derby meeting between United and Manchester City (4.04 million) as Sky's biggest ever audience for any event only on Sky Sports.

The Liverpool-United fixture is now Sky's second most viewed Premier League game ever in terms of average audience, ranking only behind the 4.94 million viewers that tuned into last June's Merseyside derby, which was simultaneously on Sky One and free-to-air (FTA) on Pick TV.