Ratings Roundup: MLS on FOX, EPL Week 6, WNBA Finals

Airing either before or after the NFL, depending on the market, regional Major League Soccer action earned a 0.8 rating and 1.35 million viewers on FOX Sunday — flat in ratings and up 4% in viewership from the same split-national window last year (0.8, 1.30M) and the largest MLS regular season audience on any network since 2004. Most of the country received Atlanta-Montreal following NFL coverage. The rest got Kansas City-Los Angeles leading into the NFL.

Rarely has MLS earned as large an audience on a single outlet. Last year’s MLS Cup had 1.41 million viewers on FOX and this year’s All-Star Game had 1.5 million on the Univision family of networks. Including the streaming audience on Fox Sports GO and Spanish-language viewership on Fox Deportes, Sunday’s telecast delivered 1.45 million.

Last Saturday’s Leicester City-Liverpool English Premier League match had a 0.5 rating and 750,000 viewers on NBC, up 54% in ratings and 23% in viewership from Arsenal-Chelsea last year (0.35, 608K) and up 100% and 90% respectively from Manchester City-West Brom in 2015 (0.27, 395K), both of which aired on NBCSN. It was the week’s only match to increase over last year, though the network switch provides an obvious caveat.

On NBCSN, Saturday’s Manchester City-Crystal Palace match was the top draw with 326,000 viewers (-25%), followed by Brighton-Newcastle on Sunday (268K, -28%), West Ham-Tottenham earlier Saturday (223K, -39%) and Arsenal-West Brom on Monday (181K). Stoke-Chelsea on CNBC brought up the rear with 103,000.

Sunday’s Sparks-Lynx WNBA Finals Game 1 had a 0.39 rating and 566,000 viewers on ABC, down 5% in ratings and viewership from the same matchup last year (0.41, 597K) and down 7% and 1% respectively from Fever-Lynx in 2015 (0.42, 571K). Though down overall, viewership in adults 18-49 (159K) slightly exceeded the past two years. Game 2 Tuesday night had 381,000 viewers on ESPN2, down 15% from last year (446K) and down 7% from 2015 (410K).