Ratings soar
for World Cup games
First five matches are up 80 percent over 2006
By Toni Fitzgerald
Jun 14, 2010
The United States and England played to a draw in their first match of the World Cup, but ABC got a big victory.
The network's coverage of the game was the fifth-most-watched World Cup game on the network since it began carrying the tournament in 1994.
According to Nielsen, 13 million total viewers watched Saturday's 2:30 p.m. match, which ended with a 1-1 tie.
Some 3.8 million more watched the match on Univision, giving the game a total audience of 16.8 million viewers, or 400,000 more than the audience for game four of the NBA finals and more than double the audience for the deciding game of the NHL finals.
That was just part of a strong start to the World Cup for ABC, sister network ESPN and Univision, who are averaging an impressive combined 8.1 million per game through the first five matches, up 80 percent over 2006.
Univision broadcast its second-most-watched World Cup game since '94 on Friday, with the opening match between Mexico and South Africa drawing 5.4 million total viewers. Another 2.9 million watched on ESPN.
The first weekend may have been a perfect storm of marketing and timing. Mexico, which had struggled during Cup qualifying, faced the host country in the opening match of the entire tournament, which drove Univision's tune-in.
And the U.S.-England rivalry was highly promoted by ABC and ESPN as the potentially decisive game in the squads' otherwise average group. It also aired on a Saturday, when people were able to watch TV midday.
The U.S.'s next game, airing mid-morning on Friday, probably won't receive anywhere near the same tune-in.
Still, Nielsen's estimates don't reflect the true viewership for the match. ESPN is also offering live online and mobile phone streams, and thousands, if not millions, of viewers watched the game at bars and restaurants across the country, which are not included in Nielsen's tallies.
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