ESPN averaged 1.033 million viewers for the EPL Manchester United-Manchester City match on Monday afternoon, marking the most-viewed EPL match ever on cable TV in the U.S. The previous high was 610,000 viewers for Arsenal-Chelsea on December 27, 2010 on ESPN2. The match also marked the most-viewed EPL match ever for ESPN Deportes, with an average of 273,000 Hispanic viewers tuning in for the telecast (ESPN).
| MOST-VIEWED EPL MATCHES ON U.S. CABLE TV |
| DATE | NET | MATCH | VIEWERS (000) |
| 4/30/12 | ESPN | Manchester United-Manchester City | 1,033 |
| 12/27/10 | ESPN2 | Chelsea-Arsenal | 610 |
| 2/11/12 | ESPN2 | Liverpool-Manchester United | 588 |
| 2/6/11 | Fox Soccer | Liverpool-Chelsea | 579 |
| 12/13/10 | ESPN2 | Arsenal-Manchester United | 570 |
| | | | |
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS: FX averaged 627,000 viewers for the second leg of the Bayern Munich-Real Madrid UEFA Champions League semifinal last Wednesday, marking the most-viewed Champions League non-final match ever in the U.S., beating out the first leg of Chelsea-FC Barcelona on April 18 (592,000 viewers). Combined with the telecast on Fox Deportes, the second leg of Bayern Munich-Real Madrid averaged 1.236 million viewers. Meanwhile, the second leg of Chelsea-FC Barcelona on April 24 averaged 438,000 viewers on Fox Soccer, up 71% from the comparable second leg of FC Barcelona-Real Madrid last year. Combined with Fox Deportes, the match averaged 983,000 viewers (Fox).
CAN I KICK IT? In N.Y., Jack Bell noted that KickTV, the YouTube-based joint venture between Soccer United Marketing, Bedrocket Media Ventures and Google, “currently has more than 10,000 subscribers who have viewed nearly 2 million videos” since the channel’s launch on March 2. MLS Digital GM Chris Schlosser said, “We’re not trying to create ESPN. This is something for an audience that wants a lighter voice than the official MLS site. It’s intended to be fun and informative, with content you can’t get anywhere else.” Schlosser added, "All the content is original and exclusive to the channel and YouTube.” Bedrocket Media Ventures Founder & CEO Brian Bedol said, “At some point there could be live games on Kick. But for now we want to provide the ultimate destination for fans to hang out between games and get smarter about teams and the game around the world” (NYTIMES.com, 5/1).
