Games not featuring the USWNT are seeing about double the rating non-U.S. games saw in '15GETTY IMAGES
The FIFA Women's World Cup enters the quarterfinal round today, and Fox is "very satisfied" with viewership numbers for its coverage thus far, according to R. Thomas Umstead of MULTICHANNEL NEWS. Figures for the tournament in France are generally up from four years ago, when it took place in Canada. Fox Sports VP/Research, League Operations & Strategy Michael Mulvihill said there has "never been a case where a World Cup or Olympics moved from a North American site to a site elsewhere in the world and had viewership increase in the U.S." He said the increased viewership overall from the '15 tournament "runs counter to the long-term trend of events that go from North America abroad." He added, "We’ve been encouraged by the numbers that we’ve seen for the U.S. matches, and we’re encouraged by the (ratings) improvement of the non-U.S. matches." The U.S. plays France tomorrow in a matchup of the two of the top-ranked teams in the world, and Mulvihill acknowledged there is "no substitute for having our national team in the finals" should France pull the upset. However, he noted Sunday's France-Brazil Round of 16 match was the "most watched, non-U.S. game ever." He said the viewership in the "non-U.S. games is about double the rating that the non-US games were doing in the round of 16 four years ago" (MULTICHANNEL.com, 6/25).
THIS GOES TO 11: Fox averaged 1.13 million viewers for all games in the Round of 16 at the World Cup, up 11% from 1.02 million viewers for the same stage four years ago, when many games aired in primetime in the U.S. There was no Round of 16 eight years ago, when the event was in Germany and had a time zone similar to France (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
