via Univision press release (please note the 10.7 million is the “Total Audience” measure representing anyone who watched at least six minutes:
U.S.A. VS. MEXICO WORLD CUP QUALIFYING MATCH REACHES MORE VIEWERS THAN ANY Spanish-Language Television Sporting Event in History, 10.7 MILLION FANS IN ALL
MIAMI, FL, FEBRUARY 12, 2009 - Univision’s live telecast of Wednesday night’s highly anticipated World Cup qualifying soccer match from Columbus, Ohio between the national teams of the U.S.A. and Mexico was seen in its entirety or in part by 10.7 million viewers, and was watched by more viewers than any other sporting event in the history of Spanish-language television.
In addition, with an average audience of nearly 5.9 million total viewers, it was the most watched sportscast season-to-date on Spanish-language TV and posted dramatic increases over last year’s USA-Mexico Friendly Match across the following key demos:
U.S.A. vs. Mexico
Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 7-9:11pm EST
Average Audience percentage increase vs. 2008
- +15% Persons 2+ (5,880,000)
- +9% Adults 18-49 (3,610,000)
- +11% Men 18-49 (2,260,000)
- +23% Adults 18-34 (2,340,000)
- +28% Men 18-34 (1,490,000)
- +12% Adults 25-54 (3,130,000)
- +15% Men 25-54 (1,940,000)
SOURCE: NTI Fast Nationals 2/11/09, NTI 2/6/08, 9/22/08-2/10/09, Live+SD. NTI Fast National Cume Live +SD, 6 minute qualifier.
Local Market Highlights:
- Univision was the #1 station during the match’s time period in the following markets:
o Among Adults 18-49 and Men 18-49: Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Sacramento
o Among Adults 18-34 and Men 18-34: Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Sacramento
o Among Total Viewers 2+: Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, and San Francisco (tie)
o Among Households: Los Angeles, Houston, and Phoenix
- The match was the #1 program of the day among Men 18-34 and Men 18-49 in Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Dallas and Phoenix (tie in Men 18-34). The match also topped all first-run English-language primetime shows such as FOX’s “American Idol,” ABC’s “Lost,” NBC’s “Law & Order,” and CBS’ “CSI: NY” in Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Dallas, and Phoenix among Adults 18-34, Men 18-34 and Men 18-49.
- The match boosted Univision’s total day viewership, making it the #1 station of the day in the following markets:
o Among Adults 18-34: Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Chicago (tie), Phoenix, and Sacramento
o Among Men 18-34: Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, and Sacramento
o Among Adults 18-49: Los Angeles, Houston, and Phoenix
o Among Men 18-49: Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, and Sacramento (tie)
o Among Total Viewers 2+: Los Angeles, Miami, and Houston
o Among Households: Los Angeles and Houston
- Univision out-delivered ESPN2’s coverage of the match in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, San Antonio, Phoenix, San Francisco, Sacramento and Austin among Households; and in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix, San Francisco and Sacramento among Adults 18-49, Adults 18-34, Men 18-49, Men 18-34 and Total Viewers 2+.
Source: Nielsen Station Index, live data, 02/11/2009 and 02/06/2008, total day is defined as 6am-2am local time.
Online Highlights
Univision.com (keyword: Eliminatorias) drove unprecedented online engagement during and after the event. Simultaneous live video streaming of the game and chats kept die-hard fans close to the action. Univision.com had extensive post-game coverage with exclusive commentary from soccer experts Pablo Ramirez and “el Profe” Bracamontes, as well as player interviews and reactions from the game. Univision Móvil followed suit with all-around coverage of the game on its premier soccer mobile destination, LigaMax. By texting the word “LIGA” to 50900, mobile fans have access to LigaMax’s comprehensive game results, news and photos on-the-go.
Univision Communications Inc. is the premier Spanish-language media company in the United States. Its operations include Univision Network, the most-watched Spanish-language broadcast television network in the U.S. reaching 97% of U.S. Hispanic Households; TeleFutura Network, a general-interest Spanish-language broadcast television network, which was launched in 2002 and now reaches 85% of U.S. Hispanic Households; Galavisión, the country’s leading Spanish-language cable network; Univision Television Group, which owns and operates 64 television stations in major U.S. Hispanic markets and Puerto Rico; Univision Radio, the leading Spanish-language radio group which owns and/or operates 70 radio stations in 16 of the top 25 U.S. Hispanic markets and 5 stations in Puerto Rico; and Univision Interactive Media, which includes http://www.univision.com, the premier Spanish-language Internet destination in the U.S., and Univision Móvil, the industry’s most comprehensive Spanish-language suite of mobile offerings. Univision Communications also has a 50% interest in TuTv, a joint venture formed to broadcast Televisa’s pay television channels in the U.S. Univision Communications has television network operations in Miami and television and radio stations and sales offices in major cities throughout the United States.
For more information, please visit www.univision.net.
I wonder how many viewers ESPN had for this match. I watched some of it last evening.
Jeff, we’ll hopefully see the average viewer numbers for ESPN2 coverage by Tuesday.
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.
Why not english network like abc or nbc broadcast this games?
Paul, the game was broadcast on ESPN2 as well.
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.
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.
Good ratings a classic sport rivalry in the americas.
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.
Proof that an Americas verison of the Euro Cup wouldn’t be anywhere near as popular if it existed?
It does!
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.
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.
Thanks for the heads up Jose, I just saw and will post the ESPN press release.
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