FIFA’s first major men’s championship since switching TV partners ended with big declines.
Sunday’s Germany-Chile FIFA Confederations Cup final had 2.2 million viewers on Telemundo, per Nielsen fast-nationals — down 45% from Brazil-Spain in a later window four years ago (4.0M) and down 27% from Brazil-United States in 2009 (3.0M*), both of which aired on Univision.
Viewership was on par with Mexico’s four matches, which ranged from 1.7 to 2.4 million viewers.
Comparable figures were not immediately available for English-language coverage on Fox Sports 1. The FS1 telecast had a 0.7 overnight rating, down 53% from Brazil-Spain in ’13 (1.5) and down 74% from Brazil-U.S. in 2009 (2.7), both of which aired on ESPN.
In other action, Saturday’s Portugal-Mexico third-place match had 920,000 viewers on Telemundo — down 49% from Italy-Uruguay in ’13 (1.8M). This year’s match took place at 8 AM ET while the 2013 telecast started at Noon. English-language figures were not available.
Overall, the complete Confederations Cup averaged 1.2 million viewers on Telemundo, down 25% from 2013 but up 47% from 2009. Again, English-language figures were not available.
* It was not clear whether the 2009 figures include prematch coverage. The 2013 and 2017 numbers are for the match window only.
[Wknd. numbers from Telemundo, Sports Business Daily 7.3]
