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Home › Linear Media › Disney › ESPN › Ratings: Copa America, MLB, WNBA

Ratings: Copa America, MLB, WNBA

by Jon Lewis
7 years ago
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Viewership declined double-digits for some of the marquee Copa America matches. Meanwhile, the Cubs might be generating diminishing returns on Sunday Night Baseball, and the WNBA is benefiting from broadcast network exposure.

Marquee Copa America matchups well below 2016

Wednesday’s Argentina-Paraguay Copa America match earned a 1.0 rating and 1.84 million viewers on Telemundo, down 17% in ratings and 18% in viewership from the comparable match in 2016, which aired on UniMas (Ecuador-Peru: 1.2, 2.24M). Including streaming viewership, the match had 2.1 million viewers — the largest audience of the tournament thus far.

Earlier in the night, Qatar-Colombia had a 0.5 (-44%) and 874,000 (-49%).

In other action, Tuesday’s Brazil-Venezuela match had a 0.7 and 1.39 million — down 42% and 36% respectively from United States-Costa Rica in ’16, which also aired on UniMas (1.2, 2.18M). The Bolivia-Peru lead-in had a 0.4 and 788,000.

Meanwhile, Thursday’s Japan-Uruguay match had a 0.6 and 1.03 million. The comparable 2016 window featured Mexico and had a 2.5 with 5.10 million.

Second straight drop for Cubs on Sunday Night Baseball

Cubs-Dodgers earned a 1.0 rating and 1.84 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, down 17% in ratings and 4% in viewership from last year (Cubs-Cardinals: 1.2, 1.92M), and down a tick but up 7% respectively compared to 2017 (Red Sox-Astros: 1.1, 1.72M).

The game was the Cubs’ fifth Sunday Night Baseball appearance in seven weeks. After the first three each increased, it was the second straight of those to decline.

In other action, Giants-Dodgers earned a 0.51 and 786,000 (+102%) on ESPN Monday night. The same matchup had 612,000 on ESPN Wednesday.

Over on FS1, last Saturday’s Diamondbacks-Nationals game had 207,000.

ABC games lifting WNBA viewership

The first four WNBA games on ESPN/ABC this season have averaged 426,000 viewers, up 74% from the same time last year. Keep in mind that three of the four games have aired on ABC, while each game last year aired on ESPN2.

[Numbers from Nielsen via Programming Insider 6.19, 6.21; ShowBuzz Daily 6.18; ESPN PR 6.19; Telemundo PR/Twitter 6.21]

Tags: Cubs TV RatingsDodgers TV RatingsFinal RatingsInt'l Soccer RatingsMLB on ESPNMLB RatingsSan Francisco Giants RatingsSoccer on TelemundoWNBA on ESPN/ABCWNBA Ratings
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Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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