Competition from the NBA Finals did not keep Fox Sports 1 from setting another men’s soccer record.
Thursday’s United States/Ecuador Copa America quarterfinal earned 2.1 million viewers on FS1 Thursday night, the network’s largest audience ever for men’s soccer. It edged the previous high set by USA/Paraguay last Saturday night (2.13M to 2.06M).
This year’s Copa America tournament has generated the three largest men’s soccer audiences on FS1 and four of the top five. FS1’s largest soccer audience, regardless of gender, remains 4.7 million for USA/Colombia in last year’s Women’s World Cup.
The new milestone came despite head-to-head competition from Game 6 of the NBA Finals, which had 20.7 million viewers on ABC.
Not all the Copa America news has been good for Fox Sports. Last Friday night, the FOX broadcast network pulled a 0.6 and 859,000 for Chile/Bolivia and a 0.6 and 977,000 for Argentina/Panama — two of the lowest rated and least-watched sporting events ever on primetime broadcast television. Like Thursday’s match, those telecasts also faced the NBA Finals.
(Thu. numbers from Fox Sports, with additional info from Programming Insider)
