Over at The Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan entitled a post: "Why Americans Don't Watch The World Cup." While the content of the post mostly relies on stuff Dana McCourt wrote at The Edge Of The American West, I take issue with it's very premise.
The USA-England match drew more viewers to ABC & Univision than the 1st 4 games of the NBA Finals. Indeed, ABC & Univision can boast viewership of about 17 million, roughly the same as the 17.65 million averaged by ITV1 in the U.K. for the same match. Obviously, the US market is much larger, but this is a significant achievement nonetheless.
Furthermore, the USA-Ghana match drew even better: 19.4 million viewers between ABC and Univision on a Saturday afternoon. That beats:
Like it or not, Americans do watch the World Cup. And in significant numbers!
timothy dee
The USA-England match drew more viewers to ABC & Univision than the 1st 4 games of the NBA Finals. Indeed, ABC & Univision can boast viewership of about 17 million, roughly the same as the 17.65 million averaged by ITV1 in the U.K. for the same match. Obviously, the US market is much larger, but this is a significant achievement nonetheless.
Furthermore, the USA-Ghana match drew even better: 19.4 million viewers between ABC and Univision on a Saturday afternoon. That beats:
- 2009 World Series: 19.1 million (average per game)
- 2010 NBA Finals: 18.1 million (average per game)
- 2010 final round of the Masters: 16.7 million
- 2010 Kentucky Derby: 16.5 million
Like it or not, Americans do watch the World Cup. And in significant numbers!
timothy dee
Does this even take into account people who watch in bars, public places, etc.?
ReplyDeleteNo. I don't think anybody has developed a reliable way to measure that. Of course, I'm not sure how 'reliable' the regular Nielsen ratings are, either!
ReplyDeleteThere would be plenty of people watching NBA, MLB, etc in bars as well though, so that's a wash.
ReplyDelete