Brazil-Argentina hit a Copa America tournament-high, but ratings were no match for three years ago. Also: Mexico scored its first increase of the Gold Cup; F1 hit another high on ESPN; ESPN’s third UFC main event improved over the second.
Brazil-Argentina tops Copa America, but still down
Tuesday’s Brazil-Argentina Copa America semifinal averaged a 1.3 rating and 2.62 million viewers on Telemundo, down 38% in ratings and 39% in viewership from Argentina-United States on Univision in 2016 (2.1, 4.30M). Including streaming, the match averaged 3.0 million.
Brazil’s win, which peaked with 3.7 million from 10-10:15 PM ET, delivered the largest audience of the tournament thus far and the largest audience for a sporting event on Telemundo since last year’s World Cup Final.
Even so, it was not the top soccer telecast of the night.
El Tri scores first increase of Gold Cup
Tuesday’s Mexico-Haiti CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal averaged a 1.7 rating and 3.59 million viewers on Univision, up 13% in ratings and 20% in viewership from Jamaica-Mexico in 2017 (1.5, 3.00M), but down 15% and 16% respectively from Mexico-Panama in 2015 (2.0, 4.27M).
El Tri’s win was the most-watched men’s soccer telecast of the year, and the team’s first match in this year’s Gold Cup to increase over 2017.
Coverage of the same match had 558,000 viewers on FS1, down 30% from the 2017 match (774K), but up 94% from the 2015 match on FS2 (287K).
F1 Austrian GP most-watched since return to schedule
Last Sunday’s Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix averaged a 0.41 rating and 640,000 viewers on ESPN2, up 41% in ratings and 48% in viewership from last year (0.29, 431K) and up 78% and 94% respectively from 2017 on CNBC (0.23, 330K).
The race, which peaked with 776,000 viewers from 10:30-10:45 PM ET, delivered its largest audience since it returned to the schedule in 1997.
The ESPN family of networks is now averaging 684,000 viewers for F1 races this season, up 21% from last year (567K) and up 18% from 2017 on the NBC family of networks (579K).
UFC on ESPN 3 up from previous card
The third UFC Fight Night on ESPN averaged a 0.7 rating and 1.09 million viewers on ESPN last Saturday night, up 40% in ratings and 32% in viewership from the second edition in March (0.5, 828K), but down 22% and 25% respectively from the debut card in February (0.9, 1.46M).
Compared to last year’s July UFC on FOX card, which took place later in the month, ratings and viewership fell 30% (from a 1.0 and 1.68 million).
[Numbers from Nielsen via Programming Insider 7.3; ShowBuzz Daily 7.2; Telemundo PR 7.3; Univision]
