The USWNT set a viewership record for the group stage of the Women’s World Cup. Also: ratings have dipped for the Yankees and Cubs; the Gold Cup and Copa America are off to a good start on Spanish-language TV.
USWNT sets Women’s World Cup group stage record
Sunday’s United States-Chile FIFA Women’s World Cup match earned a 3.0 rating and 5.32 million viewers on FOX, up 25% in ratings and 19% in viewership from the second U.S. match in 2015, against Sweden on a Friday night (2.4, 4.49M). Compared to the second U.S. match in 2011, against Colombia on a Saturday afternoon, viewership increased 185% from 1.87 million.
The U.S. win, which peaked with 6.93 million from 1:30-1:45 PM ET, ranks as the most-watched Women’s World Cup group stage match on record. The previous high was 5.04 million for U.S.-Nigeria on FOX in 2015.
Including the streaming audience of 84,000, the match had 5.41 million viewers. The match had an additional 833,000 viewers on Telemundo, that network’s second-largest Women’s World Cup audience on record.
In other Women’s World Cup action, Sweden-Thailand had a 0.35 and 542,000 earlier Sunday; Netherlands-Cameroon had a 0.41 an 608,000 on FS1 Saturday morning; Canada-New Zealand had a 0.26 and 423,000 on FS2 Saturday afternoon. Figures include prematch coverage.
Yankees, Cubs down so far this season; Phillies up
New York Yankees Major League Baseball games are averaging a 2.85 rating on YES Network so far this season, down 27% from the same point last year (3.92). This season has included ten fewer games in primetime, a sharp uptick in late night West Coast games, and a number of rainouts and rain delays.
Elsewhere in MLB, Phillies games averaged a 4.5 rating on NBC Sports Philadelphia through Friday — up 36% from the same point last year (3.3). Chicago Cubs games are averaging a 3.95 on NBC Sports Chicago, down 10% from last year’s full season average of 4.38. Per the Chicago Tribune, White Sox games are averaging a 1.12 on the same network, up 49%.
Gold Cup, Copa America, off to good starts
Opening night coverage of the CONCACAF Gold Cup averaged 1.4 million viewers across Univision and Univision Deportes Network Saturday night, up 113% from the opening night coverage two years ago. Meanwhile, the opening weekend of Copa America averaged 1.14 million on Telemundo, up 132% from 2015.
[Numbers from Fox Sports; Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 6.18; Telemundo PR/Twitter 6.17 a, b; Univision; YES Network; NBC Sports, Chicago Tribune 6.18]
