Aided by near-record viewership for USA matches, the Women’s World Cup is trending well ahead of 2011.
Coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup has averaged 1.0 million viewers across FOX and Fox Sports 1 through Monday, up 79% from the comparable point of the 2011 tournament on ESPN and ESPN2 (559K). Keep in mind the averages do not include Monday’s Norway/England match on FS1 (973K).
There are a few caveats to note. More than half of the telecasts thus far have taken place in primetime — including all four involving the USA — while no match in 2011 began after 2:45 PM ET. Several matches have aired on the FOX broadcast network compared to zero such matches on ABC four years ago. Finally, this year’s averages include an additional knockout round, while the comparable 2011 numbers are for the group stage only.
The top matches thus far have not surprisingly involved the United States, with USA/Nigeria scoring a tournament-high 5.0 million on FOX alone (5.2M including the NBC Universo audience). The four USA matches rank among the ten most-watched Women’s World Cup telecasts on record.
Outside of USA matches, the top telecast thus far was England/Mexico on FOX June 13 (1.4M), and the top telecast on cable was Sunday’s Canada/Switzerland match on FS1 (1.2M). Canada/Switzerland was one of three matches over the weekend to top the one million mark on FS1, along with China/Cameroon and France/South Korea (1.0M for both).
(Tournament-to-date average from Fox Sports; individual viewership from ShowBuzz Daily, Sports TV Ratings)
