ESPN earned a 3.0 overnight rating for Spain's 4-0 win over Italy in the Euro 2012 Final yesterday, down slightly from the 3.1 overnight the event pulled for ABC in '08. Because of the weekend's storms, overnight information from Baltimore, Columbus, Philadelphia and DC are not included in this figure. Miami-Ft Lauderdale was the top market (6.51), followed by N.Y. (5.82) and L.A. (4.86). The rest of the top 10 were S.F., Austin, San Diego, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Providence, Richmond and Las Vegas (John Ourand, THE DAILY). The AP’s Ronald Blum reported the Spain-Portugal and Italy-Germany semifinals averaged 1.91 million viewers, a 46% "increase from 1.31 million four years ago.” With both semis starting at 2:45pm ET, Spain's win was “seen by 1.95 million on Wednesday," while Italy's win Thursday "drew by 1.85 million the following day.” ESPN said that the semis “averaged 576,000 additional viewers on computers, smart phones, tablets and Xbox.” Blum noted the first 31 matches “averaged 1.2 million viewers on ESPN's networks, up 61 percent from 2008.” Blum: "In an era when many sports struggle to maintain ratings, U.S. viewership of international soccer is increasing at a startling rate" (AP, 7/1).
THE DARKE KNIGHT: In N.Y., Phil Mushnick writes ESPN play-by-play announcer Ian Darke “remains a great get.” During yesterday’s championship, when a Spanish player “shanked a scoring chance in front -- an irrelevancy given the play was ruled offside -- Darke simply said, ‘Saves him the embarrassment’” (N.Y. POST, 7/2).
BLOWOUT NUMBERS: The Guardian's John Plunkett notes Spain-Italy “averaged 12.3 million viewers on BBC1, with a 15-minute peak of 13.3 million on Sunday night.” Meanwhile, ITV1's coverage of the match “averaged 2 million viewers, with a 15-minute peak of 2.2 million.” Overall BBC1's Match of the Day Live: Euro 2012 Final, “pulled in 10.2 million viewers, a 41.3% share, between 7pm and 10.15pm” London time (GUARDIAN.co.uk, 7/2).
