The UEFA European Championship is off to a good start on new rightsholder Fox Sports.
The UEFA Euro 2024 is averaging 1.20 million viewers across FOX and FS1 through Sunday, up a third from the opening weekend on ESPN/ABC in 2021 (901K). Keep in mind that the Fox networks carried six of the eight matches on English-language television, with the remaining two on the streaming service Fubo (which is not Nielsen-rated).
England-Serbia topped the weekend slate with 1.83 million on FOX, the largest Euro group stage audience since Spain-Italy on ESPN in 2012 (2.11M). (Keep in mind Nielsen did not include out-of-home viewing in its estimates prior to 2020 and that holidays like Father’s Day typically correspond with higher out-of-home viewing.) England’s win, which peaked with 2.21 million, increased 73% from Netherlands-Ukraine on ESPN in ’21 (1.06M). Miami-Ft. Lauderdale and San Diego led all markets with a 2.1 rating, followed by Washington (D.C.) at 1.7.
Streaming coverage on the Fox Sports app added 55,000.
Placing second for the weekend, Italy-Albania averaged 1.43 million on FOX Saturday — up 10% from Belgium-Russia on ABC in ’21 (1.29M) and peaking at 1.66 million in the 4:30 PM quarter-hour. Miami was the top market at a 1.5 rating, followed by San Diego and Memphis each at a 1.3.
Earlier Saturday, FOX drew 1.28 million for Spain’s upset of Croatia, peaking at 1.56 million. (There is no useful comparison for Spain-Croatia as the comparable 2021 window was the Denmark-Finland match in which Christan Eriksen collapsed from cardiac arrest.) San Diego and New Orleans led all markets with a 1.8 each, followed by Miami at a 1.7.
Rounding out the broadcast network slate, Germany-Scotland drew 1.10 million on FOX Friday — up 68% from the opening match of the 2021 tournament on ESPN (Turkey-Italy: 654K). New Orleans was the top market at a 2.6.
Over on FS1, Denmark-Slovenia averaged 933,000 viewers and Netherlands-Poland 636,000 Sunday morning. Versus ESPN’s comparable 2021 windows, the former increased 6% from Austria-North Macedonia (883K) and the latter declined 28% from England-Croatia (878K). Miami was the top market for both matches with a 1.3 and 1.0 respectively.
