With the United States absent from this year’s final, ESPN had a big decline in ratings and viewership for the Confederations Cup final.
Sunday’s Brazil/Spain Confederations Cup final drew approximately 5.95 million viewers across ESPN and Univision, down 14% from United States/Brazil on the two networks in 2009 (6.9M).
ESPN was responsible for the declines, as the absence of the United States resulted in a sharp decline in both ratings and viewership. The network earned a 1.2 U.S. rating and just under 2.0 million viewers for Sunday’s match, down 45% in ratings and 51% in viewership from 2009 (2.2, 3.9M).
By contrast, Univision earned 4.0 million viewers for its coverage — up 34% from 2009 (3.0M).
Earlier Sunday, the Uruguay/Italy third-place match drew approximately 2.6 million viewers on ESPN2 and Univision — up 93% from Spain/South Africa in 2009 (1.3M).
The ESPN2 telecast drew a 0.6 U.S. rating and 798,000 viewers, up 50% and 25%, respectively, from 2009 (0.4, 639K). Univision’s coverage scored 1.8 million, up a whopping 155% from 2009 (707K).
(Sunday’s numbers from ESPN, Univision)
