Fox Sports Draws 14.2 Million Viewers for USA-Netherlands Women’s World Cup Final
Fox Sports scored 14.27 million viewers across its TV and streaming services for its coverage of Sunday's USA-Netherlands FIFA Women's World Cup Soccer Final from France, making it the most watched English-language televised soccer match since the 2015 Women’s World Cup Final, according to Nielsen.
The game, in which the U.S. defeated the Netherlands 2-0 to repeat as Women's World Cup champions, was down from the 22 million viewers generated by the USA’s win against Japan in 2015 -- a record audience for an English-language soccer telecast -- but was up 22% over the 11.4 million viewers for the 2018 men’s FIFA World Cup final, according to Nielsen.
The U.S.-Netherlands game was played at 11 a.m. ET compared to the 2015 USA-Japan game, which was played in primetime.
Overall, household ratings for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 were up 2% over full tournament ratings for 2015 and were up +11% over the full 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup, according to Nielsen.
On Spanish-language network Telemundo, the game averaged a total audience delivery of 1.6 million viewers, up 22% from the 2015 final, according to the network.
During the tournament, Fox's U.S.-France telecast was the most-watched FIFA Women’s World Cup quarterfinal ever, and its coverage of the USA’s win over Chile was the most-watched FIFA Women’s World Cup group stage match ever, said Fox Sports.
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R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.