Comments on: Record-setting 10.7 million watch USA vs. Mexico World Cup qualifier on Univision

By: Footballer

Footballer — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:00:48 +0000

If America would just call football by its proper name of football, then it can air WCQ games on ABC. But they just have to be stubborn and call football something else. What a shame

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:33:24 +0000

Thanks for the heads up Jose, I just saw and will post the ESPN press release.

By: Jose

Jose — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:14:35 +0000

The game was seen by 1.2 Million viewers on ESPN2, the highest audience ever for a World Cup qualifying game on the network.

So in total 7.1 million people watched the game.

By: TomSD

TomSD — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:44:40 +0000

What I meant is that there isn’t one sporting event in the USA that can reach 80% rating.
Even if there was an American football (what you play in the NFL) world cup, the ratings for USA team would be around what the Super Bowl gets. Can you Imagine 240 million Americans watching anything at the same time.
It says a lot about a country when an annual sporting event rates higher than the most historical and most covered (news wise) elections in it’s history.

By: Chris the TV sage

Chris the TV sage — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:20:39 +0000

Proof that an Americas verison of the Euro Cup wouldn't be anywhere near as popular if it existed? It does!

By: TomSD

TomSD — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:56:02 +0000

In last year European nations cup, one of Germany’s matches had a 80% rating in Germany. And the game after with Italy and another team got 50%
Even if a football (American) world cup existed, there is no way 80% of Americans will watch a team USA match.

By: thewbviewer

thewbviewer — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:37:25 +0000

Good ratings a classic sport rivalry in the americas.

By: Holly

Holly — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:43:05 +0000

Paul, Soccer is THE sport for Latin America. The Superbowl for the US can’t hold a candle to the World Cup in Europe and Latin America. Good ratings on a Spanish-language network were a lock. On a regular English network, it wouldn’t have gotten those ratings.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:07:07 +0000

yes, but i was speaking about broadcast television and not cable tv.

an exclusive on abc or nbc could make a average of 8-10 millions that is now good enough to that networks.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:41:49 +0000

Paul, the game was broadcast on ESPN2 as well.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:37:04 +0000

Why not english network like abc or nbc broadcast this games?

By: Jeff G

Jeff G — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:46:30 +0000

Thanks Robert. I highly suspect it will be well below the Univision number, may not even reach 1 million. But, I still think it would be interesting to compare.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:18:50 +0000

Jeff, we’ll hopefully see the average viewer numbers for ESPN2 coverage by Tuesday.

By: Jeff G

Jeff G — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:10:15 +0000

I wonder how many viewers ESPN had for this match. I watched some of it last evening.