Mexico-South Korea averaged 4.6 million viewers on Fox Sports' most-watched day of the tournamentGETTY IMAGES
Mexico's 2-1 win over South Korea on Saturday was another FIFA World Cup viewership boost for Telemundo and Fox Sports. El Tri's second match of the group stage averaged a TAD of 7.2 million viewers across Telemundo outlets, marking the Spanish-language net's second-best sports telecast ever, behind only Mexico-Germany from earlier in the tournament (7.4 million viewers). The match also is the ninth-best Spanish-language WC match on record in the U.S. (393 matches through Saturday). Meanwhile, the Mexico-South Korea match helped Fox Sports to its most-viewed day yet of the '18 tourney. The match averaged a TAD of 4.6 million viewers for Fox Sports, marking the second-best match for this tourney. The top match came right after Mexico-South Korea, with Fox Sports drawing a TAD of 5.6 million viewers for Germany-Sweden. That figure marks the best figure for a non-U.S. men's WC group stage match on English-language TV since at least '90. Despite gains following Mexico's second match, both Telemundo and Fox Sports still remain well off the pace compared to both '14 and '10 (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
CHIPPING AWAY: In N.Y., James Wagner noted Telemundo getting World Cup rights for the first time has helped propel the net's rise as a "major player in the world of Spanish-language sports media" in the U.S. Despite seeing a "staggering drop" in viewership compared to recent World Cups, Telemundo "views its current World Cup ratings as a part of the process of chipping away at Univision." Telemundo's sports offerings have "grown so much over the years" that the net now has the "welcome struggle of finding enough airtime to show everything" (N.Y. TIMES, 6/24).
