England's 1-0 defeat by France in the Women's World Cup was a "ratings hit for BBC2" with a peak audience of more than 2 million viewers, "nearly double the highest audience" for the women's Euros two years ago, according to John Plunkett of the London GUARDIAN. Match of the Day Live had an average of 1.5 million viewers, a 9.1% share of the audience from 5:30pm on Tuesday. It had a five-minute peak of 2.4 million, more than 1 million ahead of the 1.3 million high for the BBC's coverage of the European Championships two years ago, for Germany's 1-0 win over Norway in the final and England's opening 3-2 defeat by Spain. The World Cup "has also been pulling in more than half a million viewers on BBC3" (GUARDIAN, 6/10).
RATINGS HIT: The FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada is attracting more TV viewers in key markets than in '11, with the first round of group stage matches drawing impressive audiences in North America, Europe and Asia.
In China, 2.3 million people enjoyed CCTV5’s coverage of the Canada-China match, well above the highest live group stage audience from '11 of 1.3 million.
U.S. broadcaster Fox Sports 1 attracted 3.3 million viewers to the game between the U.S. and Australia, more than three times higher than Team USA’s first group stage match in '11.
Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV reached 4.2 million people during Japan’s match against Switzerland, more than the number of viewers that watched Japan’s semifinal match against Sweden in '11. In the Netherlands, Ned 1’s roundup of the first day attracted 1 million viewers -- higher than any figures generated in '11 (FIFA).
