The World Cup Final drew 16.9 million viewers in the United States… a number that shocks me a little bit. I’d have never guessed it would be that high. According to this New York Times article, that’s about 4 million more people than the average rating for an NBA Finals game, it’s almost as much as the 17.5 million that watched the NCAA championship between Florida and UCLA, and it’s roughly half the number of people who have been blown by Paris Hilton. And the 16.9 million people were pulled in on a Sunday afternoon, as opposed to primetime, when it’s a lot easier to bring in a huge audience.
That 16.9 million does include 5 million viewers from Univision, on top of the 11.9 on ABC…. so neither of the individual ratings is going to be setting records. But still, it proves that there’s an audience in America that is, at the very least, soccer-curious. Now, I’m not predicting that the MLS is ever going to take the nation by storm, but if they can improve their marketing, their level of play, and maybe get some help from a decent American performance on the World Cup stage… maybe there’s a market there for them after all.
insomniac Says:
July 12th, 2006 at 1:41 am
I dunno…a ton of people watch the Summer Olympics too, but I don’t think that means there’s a tv market for weekly track and field matches.
There is, however, a market for stripper beach volleyball. Unfortunately, NBC won’t return my calls.
Biff Says:
July 12th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
I would argue that, if nothing else, the NFL has proven that Sunday afternoon is the *perfect* time to draw audiences to sporting events.
In prime time, sports are competing with other original programming, whereas on a weekend afternoon, its mostly “Movie of the Week” and other sporting events.
Kevin Facey Says:
July 13th, 2006 at 4:32 pm
I think that there is an audience for the sport of soccer. Will it be as popular like American football, basketball, or baseball? Probably not, but there is room for the sport professionally.