Mexico's 4-2 come-from-behind win in the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup Final netted record numbers for both Fox Soccer and Univision.
Fox Soccer's English-language telecast on Saturday June 25 scored with 954,000 viewers on average, according to Nielsen data. That shattered the network's previous record of 418,000 watchers for Chelsea-Liverpool, "Game Before the Game" presentation on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 6, 2011.
U.S.- Mexico delivered a 1.43 household coverage area rating, becoming the Fox Soccer's first telecast to surpass the 1.0 mark, and almost doubling its previous ratings high of a 0.77 for the 2009 Gold Cup final. That match, a 5-0 win by El Tri over Sam's Army, had stood as the network's top Gold Cup match with 369,000 until June 22, when the service posted 381,000 viewers for the U.S. victory over Panama in the tournament semifinal.
The Gold Cup final also delivered record ratings for the network among males 18 to 49, earning a 1.65 rating and 383,000 of those watchers,and with persons18 to 34, generating a 1.64 and 194,000 viewers. Officials said that was Fox Soccer's highest key male audience of all time and that deliveries beat ABC, CBS and NBC in impressions in that age group from 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. (ET) on June 25.
"The US-Mexico CONCACAF Gold Cup final was a must-see event for American sports fans," said Fox Soccer general manager David Nathanson in a statement. "Breaking our viewership record twice in one year speaks to not only the growth of soccer in the United States, but also to the destination Fox Soccer has become in carrying the world's biggest soccer events."
As expected, the NIelsens were a lot higher for Univision, which averaged 7.98 million viewers for its Copa Ora championship match coverage on Saturday night. That delivery, which included 4.7 million persons 18 to 49, displaced Univision's June 22 semifinal airing of Mexico's 2-0 overtime win versus Honduras, which drew 7.1 million, as the broadcaster's most-watched primetime sportscast. The June 25 game now ranks at the network's third most-watched sporting event behind the 2010 FIFA World Cup Round of 16 match between El Tri and Argentina, which drew 8.7 million viewers, and Spain's 1-0 win over The Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup Final in South Africa.
Univision's presentation of the final made the U.S. Spanish-language media leader tops in all of TV on Saturday night.
Moreover on Univision local stations, Mexico-U.S. was the No. 1 broadcast program of the entire day, regardless of language, among viewers, persons and males18 to 49, persons and guys 18 to 34 and people 12 to 34 in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix, San Francisco and Sacramento.
Overall, the 2011 event was Univision's best yet with the Copa Ora tourney, which registered a 36% increase to 2.25 million viewers on average over the 2009 tournament. On the demo side, Univision scored advances of 36% with the 12-to-34 set (951,000); 34% with persons 18 to 34 (803,000); 36% among viewers 18 to 49 (1.42 million); 37% with guys 18 to 34 (529,000); and 36% against males 18 to 49 (929,000).
