Much has been written about Fox Sports’ World Cup declines, but Telemundo is seeing a similar dropoff.
Telemundo’s declines are on par with those of Fox Sports. FOX and FS1 averaged 2.54 million viewers through the round of 16, also down 38% from 2014 (4.08M).
The Fox declines have largely been attributed to the absence of the United States, a factor that would also impact Telemundo’s viewership (albeit to a lesser extent). Though not as big a draw as Mexico, the four U.S. matches during the 2014 World Cup averaged 5.0 million viewers on Univision — comfortably above the network’s overall average.
The round of sixteen specifically averaged 3.25 million on Telemundo (including streaming), down 27% from 2014 (4.45M). As previously noted, Mexico’s round of 16 match was half as big a draw as four years ago.
Outside of Mexico’s loss to Brazil, which as previously reported had 5.0 million, the network’s top round of 16 audience was 3.81 million for Uruguay-Portugal last Saturday — off a fraction of a percent from ’14 (Colombia-Uruguay: 3.83M).
Over on FOX, the round of 16 averaged a 3.0 rating and 4.86 million viewers — down 26% in ratings and 27% in viewership from 2014 (4.2, 6.70M) and down a tick and 4% respectively from 2010 (3.1, 5.04M). Excluding U.S. matches, this year’s averages were down just 7% from 2014 (3.3, 5.21M) and up 52% and 55% respectively from 2010 (2.1, 3.13M).
Tuesday’s England-Colombia match 4.67 million viewers. The comparable window in 2014 pit the United States against Belgium, earning 16.5 million on ESPN. Including pre-match coverage, the audience of 4.38 million was the largest on record for a weekday round of 16 match that did not involve the United States.
[Numbers from Telemundo, Fox Sports PR 7.4]
