ESPN earned a 4.3 overnight rating yesterday for Argentina’s win over the Netherlands in penalty kicks, a record for a FIFA World Cup semifinal match on ESPN or ESPN2. The 4.3 figure surpassed the previous record set on Tuesday -- a 4.1 rating for Germany's blowout win over Brazil. Baltimore led all markets with a 7.1 overnight, followed by a 7.0 rating for N.Y. ESPN's 4.2 average overnight for the '14 semifinals marks a 50% increase from the 2.8 figure in '10 (THE DAILY).
DEUTSCHE DANDY: Tuesday's Germany-Brazil match averaged a 4.2 final rating and 6,643,000 viewers. ESPN's telecast peaked in the final half hour of the match from 5:30-6:00pm ET with a 4.6 rating and 7.5 million viewers. The previous best marks for the final rating of a World Cup semifinal match came in '06, when Italy-Germany drew a 3.4 rating and 5,850,000 viewers on ESPN (ESPN).
WORTHWHILE INVESTMENT: CNBC's Julia Boorstin said ESPN is "arguably the biggest winner of World Cup so far," as the tournament has "broken all sorts of ratings records" for the net. That will result in a boost in ad revenue "at a usually slow time of the year" and mean that ESPN has "more than gotten its money worth" for the $100M it paid to acquire the World Cup rights. Boorstin said, "The big question is whether new soccer fans will make Fox' $425 million payment for the next two World Cups worthwhile. It won't have the advantage of a convenient time zone and we'll see how far the Team USA advances." The World Cup also has been the "biggest event ever for both Facebook and Twitter," but it remains to be seen if the "global conversation about soccer means that either Facebook or Twitter lured new users when they report their earnings later this month" ("Street Signs," CNBC, 7/9).
CALLING ALL LADIES: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir reported Univision's strategy to "link soccer and the steaminess of telenovelas appears to have worked," as weekday World Cup viewership for women 18-49 has increased 74% from the regular programming in the month before the tournament. Univision Senior VP/Network Sales & Strategy Research Debbie Shinnick said, "With the tremendous growth we’re seeing, we assume the campaign helped." Sandomir notes Univision's total World Cup viewership "has climbed" 38%, to 3.25 million, through the first 60 matches. It is "likely that more women were already going to watch the games," but Univision "wanted to be certain that it attracted as many women as possible to matches at a time when they were already watching the network." The Brazil-Mexico group-stage match on June 17 "attracted 1.6 million women from 18 to 49, a shade more than the 1.5 million men in the same age group who were watching." Meanwhile, Univision "was not the only network to benefit from increased female viewership." Through the quarterfinals, ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC "averaged 656,000 women in the 18-to-49 age group," up 39% from four years ago (NYTIMES.com, 7/9).
A GLOBAL DEMOCRACY: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Taos Turner wrote under the header "The World Agrees: Soccer Matches Should Be Free On TV" and noted while watching the World Cup "may not be a basic human right," leaders across the world still "recognize that a lot of people view it as such, and that makes the World Cup a political opportunity." In countries that "agree on little else, there is agreement that World Cup games ought to be freely viewable" (WSJ.com, 7/9).
