Soccer wins big in USA
Chris Forrester
The final soccer match, as far as the USA was concerned, saw the plucky newcomers lose to Ghana 2-1. But the on-screen results were fantastic. Not quite up to Super Bowl standards perhaps, but at 14.9m, was the best-ever viewership for a World Cup in the USA.
ABC, which carried the game live on June 26, saw excellent ratings throughout the game, building to almost 14.9m viewers, according to Nielsen’s preliminary data. The pre-match preamble also delivered up 8.65m fans.
But that wasn’t all. Add in Univision’s feed for its Hispanic audience, and that supplied an additional 4.5m viewers.
However, just to put all this into context: while excellent, the ABC results still don’t quite top those for the local USA ‘Women’s World’ soccer tournament, which managed to 17.98m viewers to a final back in 1999!
Chris Forrester
The final soccer match, as far as the USA was concerned, saw the plucky newcomers lose to Ghana 2-1. But the on-screen results were fantastic. Not quite up to Super Bowl standards perhaps, but at 14.9m, was the best-ever viewership for a World Cup in the USA.
ABC, which carried the game live on June 26, saw excellent ratings throughout the game, building to almost 14.9m viewers, according to Nielsen’s preliminary data. The pre-match preamble also delivered up 8.65m fans.
But that wasn’t all. Add in Univision’s feed for its Hispanic audience, and that supplied an additional 4.5m viewers.
However, just to put all this into context: while excellent, the ABC results still don’t quite top those for the local USA ‘Women’s World’ soccer tournament, which managed to 17.98m viewers to a final back in 1999!