TV Ratings USA-England: 2nd Best Of All Time

Other Leagues and Sports
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[url=http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/usa-england-draws-14-5-million-total-u-s-viewers/]http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/med ... s-viewers/[/url]
[b]A further breakdown of the of the game’s audience reveals that 57% of total viewers fell in the 18-49 demographic.[/b] An estimated 65% of adults 18+ were male, while 35% were female. Teens accounted for almost 7% of the total audience.
Only the second round game against Brazil back in 1994 drew more people. And there is where baseball need pay serious attention but has not and has been losing the battle without question with hockey also having made serious ground in that demographic.

The advertisers certainly have taken high notice already as I notice a lot of the ads during halftime and in the pre-game going Gen Y, but one wonders amongst the teens how many more of them by percentage watched it on a mobile platform as they multitasked instead of watching TV as they just do not actively very much.

Mobile’s more the future with more reliable platforms than we have now to come with 4G as I hear is more the case in Asia already.

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Fourteen and half million for a first round game. Nice! I've heard the non-US games are up in ratings as well. That's impressive considering 20% of the games are on at 5 AM in western third of the country. Don't how it's doing in Canada so far. The way this event is going I'll be happy if the numbers stay the same as 2006.

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The game got great ratings in Canada as well. Nearly 3 mil (2.27 mil on CBC and 730,000 on RDS) for a non-Canada and first round game! :rockin:

Here are the world cup ratings in Canada so far … (courtesy of a BigSoccer poster)

1. World Cup, England vs. U.S., Sunday, CBC: 2,275,000* 2. World Cup, Germany vs. Australia, Sunday, CBC: 1,660,000 3. World Cup, Argentina vs. Nigeria, Saturday, CBC: 1,305,000 4. World Cup, Serbia vs. Ghana, Sunday, CBC: 1,212,000 5. World Cup, Italy vs. Paraguay, Monday, CBC: 1,136,000 6. World Cup: Uruguay vs. France, Friday, CBC: 1,010,000 7. World Cup: South Africa vs. Mexico, Friday, CBC: 906,000 8. World Cup: Japan vs. Cameroon, Monday, CBC: 637,000 9. World Cup: Korea vs. Greece, Saturday, CBC: 605,000 10. Auto racing: F1 Canadian Grand Prix, Sunday, TSN: 578,000 11. NBA: Lakers at Celtics, Sunday, TSN: 544,000* 12. World Cup: Algeria vs. Slovenia, Sunday, CBC: 513,000 13. World Cup: Netherlands vs. Denmark, Monday, CBC: 488,000 14. MLB: Blue Jays at Rockies, Saturday, Sportsnet: 482,000 15. Auto racing: NASCAR Sprint Cup, Sunday, TSN: 414,000
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Soccer is popular no question. For me, I am following the World Cup, on the sports highlights. I still can't get past watching 1 or 2 minutes of any game without changing the channel or doing something else as I find the general flow of the game boring since I don't quite get it yet. But the highlights are great I will admit. Maybe one day if Hamilton actually gets a team worth watching I'll go to a game and learn about it more.

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Earl I have found your experience to be the case for this World Cup so far even for me as a big fan otherwise, and TFC as also a big fan has made similar remarks.

Since Monday when I spent most of the match watching Italy rather depressed I have been looking forward to this Friday with its three compelling matches. Also on Thursday Argentina-South Korea early looks like a good one.

It's been a long stretch otherwise but Switzerland's surprise today and North Korea's "honourable loss" yesterday certainly are keeping us with at least one eye on the action so to speak.

Since Monday the best matches or parts of matches were

Brazil-North Korea second half
Spain-Switzerland second half

I am now going to watch the highlights of Uruguay's rout of South Africa to see how good that was because I had to sleep at some point after being up working all night for an extra shift.

One thing is for sure so far in that I don't ever remember any tournament with so many such scoreless first halves, and I might have to research into my foggy memories of Italy 1990, after which they finally changed some more rules to open things up and appear to be quite overdue to do so again after this is over given that "the beautiful game" has become way too defencive yet again. (Note analogously, rugby is in a rather long and dreary "purgatory mode" with far more complaints around the globe right now due to similar complaints of not enough competitive action, but no major rules will be changed anything until after its world cup in 2011)

One change I advocate now for football/soccer, except not for the World Cup and other international team tournaments because the math does not work out, would be to make a win worth now 4 points instead of 3, up from the 3 points for said wins that started back with the World Cup 1994 USA for all play at that time. Again to be clear, for all play EXCEPT the World Cup and similar international team tournaments.

In turn all the leagues worldwide adopted the new FIFA scoring within a few years afterwards if not straight away for their own competitions, and so much for the better as we have never looked back.

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Interesting …I read an article yesterday that now I wish I had saved that showed an NBA finals game with higher ratings than the World Cup games, even USA-England.

Overall though the NBA Finals have lagged greatly based on their historic performance since 2004 as have all NBA ratings since 1998 post-Chicago Jordan and all regular season NBA ratings since 1998.

Few care about the NBA in Canada I see even with the Lakers and Celtics, but all the same that league is seriously hurting for TV ratings even with the apparent improvement this year and rightly so given recent woeful coverage, thuggishness, and various antics in the NBA.

Rather baffling to me has always been the fascination down here with NASCAR and most of all in both countries that fake wrestling stuff.

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You’re not alone there. Even I as a hardcore soccer fan am not enjoying these games as much as I did in the other world cups. You’ll hear the same in many soccer forums from regular fans. I’ve watched every world cup since 1990 and I was glued to my TV for every moment of those games (90-95% of those games at least). Same can’t be said for this event in South Africa.

Many factors like the annoying atmosphere killing horns that are blowing non-stop (where are the constant ooohs and ahhhhs we used to hear in other world cups? they are being drowned out by the horns), a ‘supernatural’ ball, as some of the players call it, that bounce a lot and hard, making playing with a rhythm nearly impossible, a ball that also sails a lot (high altitude also has some to do with it) making some of the best players look like amateurs with their passing and pass-receiving (or lack thereof), lack of beautiful one-touch passes and scoring chances, some games with noticeable amount of empty seats taking the mystic out of the world cup etc. etc. all coming together to make this event a dud for me so far. It has gotten a little better in the last few games but it will still likely be the worst world cup I’ve ever experienced.

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Great take TFC as well. I agree with your thoughts and IMHO we are in a troubling situation considering the game fighting so hard since the success of USA 1994 to draw in more North American fans.

I go back to 1982 when World Cup coverage was not even available live on TV but for the final. And I was in Italy in 1990 to watch most of those games whilst there mind you with only the second half of some of the first round games shown live in the US. How far we have come, but how far this World Cup lags indeed and will we go backwards now?

And Greece-Nigeria just now to add fuel to the fire of discontent. :frowning: :roll: Essentially one autogol and two from just plain woeful goalkeeping even by amateur standards. This is not world class football indeed.

Time for some rule changes to the code I say or at least in North America soccer will be back on the wane with some of its high growth squandered – see my 4 points for win recommendation below for starters.

I did not see the match between Argentina and South Korea from this morning, but perhaps as I had anticipated correctly that was the best one yet? Otherwise second half Brazil-South Korea I would have to say, but compared to other World Cups so far this one like TFC has been dreadful overall though our coverage of it in the US has been absolutely the best ever and is solid even by higher British standards. Hopefully my high hopes for tomorrow Friday are on target with three prospective solid matches.

As of Wednesday afternoon some telling quick stats by these fine authors Stark covering the games for Real Clear Sports:

[url=http://www.realclearsports.com/blognetwork/the_cup_running_over/2010/06/stats-for-the-first-set-of-games-in-the-world-boring-cup.html]http://www.realclearsports.com/blognetw ... g-cup.html[/url]

And here is a fine brief article on why the World Cup action is not as compelling now from the same authors who apparently anticipated correctly the very same:

[url=http://www.realclearsports.com/blognetwork/the_cup_running_over/2010/06/why-the-world-has-been-so-boring----and-is-likely-to-remain-that-way.html]http://www.realclearsports.com/blognetw ... t-way.html[/url]

It’s a fine take overall though I find only the following statement in it one-sided and rather misleading, as in fact even in such a situation any player realises that the World Cup is his venue also for ETERNAL glory and heroism.

Add to all this the natural hesitancy that creeps in when a player knows that any mistake could make him a goat for a lifetime (a la Robert Green) and the style of play tends toward the ultra-conservative.
From Italia 1990 remember Roger Milla anyone? Salvatore "Toto" Schillaci?

Those are players who were more to their countries in the World Cup well over and above their professional careers, and most fans, coaches, and players over age 30 remember those guys to this day. So far we have perhaps only Higuain whose name few of us including me can even pronounce correctly as of yet.

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From Italia 1990 remember Roger Milla anyone? Salvatore "Toto" Schillaci?
Hehe I may forget many players but Roger Milla is one I'll never forget. That was the first ever world cup match I've watched in my life at age 11. I idolized Maradona back then and Argentina was a huge favorite of mine. Milla upset them (and me) in the opener with his goal, with the help of a mistake from Gicucia, ran to the corner flag and did his hip/leg dance .. still etched in my memory. I remember Scillaci (bald guy?) too lighting that event with a lot of goals.

And yep. Argetina-South Korea was a very good game, both on the field and in the stadium, atmosphere wise (whole place had a light blue hue and you could hear a lot of the crowd despite the vuvuzelas).

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Good to see the world cup still averaging over a million viewers on CBC. The numbers will likely go down some with all the simultaneous games (incl. 8 games on Bold) to be televised this week but will no doubt pick up in the 2nd round.

These are the top sports ratings for the weekend:

1. World Cup, Italy vs. New Zealand, Sunday, CBC: 1,631,000 2. World Cup, Brazil vs. Ivory Coast, Sunday, CBC: 1,588,000* 3. World Cup, Ghana vs. Australia, Saturday, CBC: 1,245,000 4. World Cup, Cameroon vs. Denmark, Saturday, CBC: 1,205,000 5. World Cup, England vs. Argentina, Friday, CBC: 1,034,000 6. World Cup, Slovenia vs. U.S., Friday, CBC: 922,000 7. World Cup, Netherlands vs. Japan, Saturday, CBC: 727,000 8. Golf, U.S. Open final round, Sunday, TSN: 693,000* 9. World Cup, Germany vs. Slovenia, Friday, CBC: 674,000 10. World Cup, Slovakia vs. Paraguay, Sunday, CBC: 530,000 11. Golf, U.S. Open third round, Saturday, TSN: 489,000* 12. MLB, Giants at Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 423,000 13. MLB, Giants at Blue Jays, Sunday, Sportsnet: 389,000 14. MLB, Giants at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 362,000** 15. Golf, U.S. Open second round, Friday, TSN: 275,000
[url=http://thestar.blogs.com/sportsmedia/2010/06/here-are-the-top-rated-sports-weekend-events-on-english-language-television-according-to-bbm-canada-overnight-calculations1.html]http://thestar.blogs.com/sportsmedia/20 ... ions1.html[/url]

I’ve heard the event is seeing a 50%+ ratings increase in the U.S. as well (about 6 mil per game on 3 channels combined).

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Ratings update:

The world cup seems to be averaging just under a million viewers per game in Canada, with numbers from 54 or so games in so far.

CBC's first-round average is about 90 per cent higher than the TSN-Rogers combo managed last team. Yes, all ratings are up (TSN's draft coverage was up 43 per cent over last year) but a ratings increase that high can't be solely due to a new ratings system.

On the other side of the ledger, Toronto Blue Jays ratings are following the team’s fortunes and have bottomed out after a great start. Just like the team.

Here are the top-rated weekend sporting events on English-language television, according to BBM overnight calculations:

  1. World Cup, Germany vs. England, Sunday, CBC: 2,270,000

  2. World Cup, U.S. vs. Ghana, Saturday, CBC: 2,116,000*

  3. World Cup, Argentina vs. Mexico, Sunday, CBC: 1,993,000

  4. World Cup, Uruguay vs. South Korea, Saturday, CBC: 1,453,000

  5. World Cup, Portugal vs. Brazil, Friday, CBC: 1,119,000

  6. World Cup, Chile vs. Spain, Friday, CBC: 1,049,000

  7. NHL, Entry draft, Friday, TSN: 828,000

  8. World Cup, N. Korea vs. Ivory Coast, Friday, CBC: 644,000

  9. MLB, Blue Jays at Phillies, Saturday, Sportsnet: 306,000

  10. Auto racing, F1 European Grand Prix, Sunday, TSN: 296,000

  11. MLB, Blue Jays at Phillies, Friday, Sportsnet: 294,000

  12. ,Auto racing, NASCAR Sprint Cup, Sunday, TSN: 269,000

  13. Tennis, Wimbledon, Saturday, TSN: 262,000*

  14. MLB, Blue Jays at Phillies, Sunday, Sportsnet: 229,000

  • Viewers on U.S. channels not calculated
http://thestar.blogs.com/sportsmedia/

In the US, the numbers on ESPN/ABC are up about 60% from 2006 and Univision up some 10%.

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Quarterfinal ratings are in ..

The 4 games averaged 1.89 mil viewers, up from about 1.5 mil for the 2nd round games according to the article below. I have lost count what the average of the whole tournament is but I'd guess around 1.1 mil per game for 60 telecasts, not including the RDS numbers. The semifinals are on weekday afternoon and should get a little over 2 mil/game. Same number for the 3rd place game I'd predict and about 5 mil for the final. The final average would then stand at around 1.2 mil per game, an increase of over 60% from the 2006 tournament.

http://thestar.blogs.com/sportsmedia/

As good an increase that is the 2014 numbers should be much bigger, thanks to the favorable timezone in Brazil. Quite a few of the games will be on prime-time and most importantly there will be no 5 am game anywhere in the country (the earliest will start at noon eastern I'd guess). If Canada can qualify CBC will make out like bandits, if they aren't already.

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But until the next world cup no wil care about soccer again

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:roll: Plenty will care. Soccer doesn't end with the World Cup. There will be hundreds of nationally televised games from many different soccer leagues over the next 4 years. Granted none of the leagues individually will get good ratings with the fan-base fragmentation and being on networks with less reach but collectively the soccer numbers should be pretty strong and growing.

The European cup in 2 years will also get good (close to CFL-type) ratings, just as it did last time. You'll see the MLS numbers increase as well with the expansion teams in Vancouver and Montreal and and more buzz for the Canadian Cup (with 2-3 more NASL teams in Canada competing with the MLS teams there). The full potential of domestic soccer likely won't be realized unti MLS 2.0 rolls out though, around the 2014 world cup in sync with the new CBA. Time is soccer's biggest friend here, thanks to the globalization and the young demo the sport has.

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The last paragraph looks a bit unfinished (writing has never been my strongest suit), so lets close it with "There's no need for MLS to rush anything at all." 8)

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Final WC ratings update for Canada and the United States

The final between Spain and Netherlands was watched by 5.1 million viewers on CBC with a peak of 7.6 mil. Additional 685,000 watched on French-language TV for a total of 5.8 mil, up over 100% from the 2006 final. The average for 64 games was 1.26 mil, up about 70% from the previous world cup.

"We're thrilled with the numbers," Scott Moore, executive director of CBC Sports, said Monday. "I think it's in keeping with the increased viewership we've seen across the board at the World Cup through the entire tournament. ... CBC Sports holds the Canadian rights to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, and Moore says that's creating a lot of excitement. "With the time zones in Brazil, the key games will be in prime time in eastern time, which I think will increase the audiences again by another 30 to 50 per cent."
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2010/07/12/sp-ratings.html [url=http://www.680news.com/sports/article/76651--cbc-says-sunday-s-world-cup-final-draws-record-television-ratings]http://www.680news.com/sports/article/7 ... on-ratings[/url]

In the US, the final drew a US soccer record 24.4 million (15.5 mil on ABC and 8.8 on Univision), up over 45% from the 2006 final. The average for the tournament was 5.9 mil per game (3.3 mil on ABC/ESPN and 2.6 mil on Univision, up 41% on and 17% respectively on the two networks). Another 100k-200k likely watched on ESPN Deportes in their Portuguese language coverage but the official numbers are not out yet.

John Skipper, ESPN's executive vice president of content, said Monday. "The TV rating is only a little piece of the story. One of every three people watched on something other than the television at their home, either watched in a bar, or on their phone, or in their office on a computer."
[url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/soccer/world-cup-2010/07/12/ratings.ap/index.html?xid=si_topstories]http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/s ... topstories[/url]