Despite a big increase in Spanish-language viewership, the UEFA Champions League final hit a six-year low.
Last Saturday’s Liverpool-Tottenham UEFA Champions League final earned a combined audience of 2.95 million viewers across TNT and Univision, down 5% from Real Madrid-Liverpool on FOX and ESPN Deportes last year (3.10M) and down 2% from Juventus-Real Madrid on FOX and Fox Deportes in 2017 (3.02M).
The combined audience is the smallest for the final since 2013. That year, Dortmund-Bayern Munich had 2.07 million across FOX and Fox Deportes.
English-language coverage on TNT had a 0.85 rating and 1.51 million viewers, down 27% in ratings and 25% in viewership from last year (1.2, 2.00M) and down 16% and 14% respectively from 2017 (1.0, 1.76M), both of which aired on FOX. Compared to the last time the final aired on cable — 2009 on ESPN — viewership increased 6% from 1.43 million.
The English-language audience was the smallest since 2013 (1.36M).
Coverage on Univision had 1.44 million viewers, up 34% from last year (1.07M), up 15% from 2017 (1.25M), and the largest Spanish-language audience for the event since 2015 on Fox Deportes (Juventus-Barcelona: 1.45M). Outside of 2015, it was the largest audience since 2011 (Barcelona-Manchester United: 1.57M).
The results are not too surprising. English-language coverage moved from broadcast (FOX) to cable (TNT) and Spanish-language coverage moved from cable (Fox/ESPN Deportes) to broadcast (Univision).
Even with the decline, the combined audience is the largest for any soccer match this year. The previous high was 2.0 million for the second leg of the Liga MX final on Univision last month.
TNT and Univision combined for a 1.2 rating in adults 18-49, down a tick from last year.
The UEFA final was the third-most watched sporting event of last weekend, behind only Game 2 of the NBA Finals (13.89M) and the final round of the PGA Tour Memorial tournament (2.96M). In adults 18-49, it ranked second behind only the NBA (4.8). It topped that night’s Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on NBCSN (2.93M, 0.9 A18-49).
UCL final viewership, past decade
[Numbers from Univision, Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 6.5]
