June 28, 2010World Cup Ratings Certify a TV WinnerBy RICHARD SANDOMIR
For the ESPN empire and Univision, any questions about the return on their investment in the World Cup are being answered by viewers. On Saturday, the United States’ loss to Ghana was seen by 14.9 million on ABC — an American record for the tournament — and an additional 4.5 million on Univision.
That’s 19.4 million viewers for a Round of 16 game on a Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Eastern — the same number that Fox averaged over six prime-time games for last year’s World Series.
“That’s phenomenal,” said Stephen Master, the vice president for sports at the Nielsen Company. “If the U.S. had kept going, to the quarters and semifinal, you would have gotten really big numbers.”
Master compared the viewership for the United States-Ghana game with February’s gold medal Olympic game, won by Canada over the United States, which attracted an average of 27.6 million viewers. “It was colder, with people not outside, but this was summer,” he said.
Then, on Sunday, Argentina’s win over Mexico was seen by 9.4 million Univision viewers, a record for any program on Spanish-language television in the United States. An additional 5.5 million watched on ABC.
Also on Sunday, 7.9 million watched Germany beat England on ESPN and Univision.
Executives of both companies said that the tournament’s performance had exceeded their expectations — a considerable claim given ESPN’s assertion that its World Cup marketing campaign was the biggest one it had ever mounted for a single event (and that includes some of its self-congratulatory anniversaries).
“This is a good, sound financial proposition for us,” said John Skipper, ESPN’s executive vice president for content. “We have the 2014 rights in Brazil, at a favorable time that gives us a favorable financial opportunity.” Rio de Janeiro’s time zone is one hour later than New York’s, pushing games to prime time and ad rates higher.
Cesar Conde, the president of Univision Networks, said, “We’re bringing in more revenue than in any previous World Cup.” That is a good development because the company’s rights fee is much larger than ever before.
Each media conglomerate acquired a package of rights from FIFA that features both World Cups and Women’s World Cups through 2014. ESPN paid $100 million, Univision $325 million.
Through 52 games, ESPN’s average viewership is up 58 percent to 2.86 million; Univision’s is 2.1 million, up nearly 9 percent. Figure, then, that about five million are watching the games, comparable to the N.B.A. playoffs, excluding the finals , and the Stanley Cup finals. And, as Master said, the games have all been shown in daytime in the United States.
“If you consider that, the World Cup numbers are fantastic,” Master said.
ESPN executives say there are various signposts of the South African World Cup’s success:
a 28 percent increase from 2006 in ratings for games not including the United States team; a 38 percent jump in the rating for men 18 to 49; and a 29 percent increase in ratings in Hispanic households, which does not seem to have hurt Univision.
The World Cup is also proving to be a laboratory for viewers watching the games streamed on ESPN3.com (as well as on UnivisionFutbol.com); a reason ESPN.com traffic is up 70 percent over its traditional annual peak of online mania during the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament; and a hotbed for out-of-home viewing in bars and restaurants.
Glenn Enoch, ESPN’s vice president for integrated media research, said that the data he had seen suggested that 50 percent more people — beyond the 2.86 million viewers measured by Nielsen — were watching the World Cup on televisions outside their homes, on ESPN3.com, on mobile devices and on radio.
“We’ve seen an 18 percent lift in our out-of-home ratings in the East Coast,” he said.
He added that ESPN’s investment in the World Cup was “an investment in the future.”
Enoch said, “There is a growing interest in soccer, and there’s certainly growth in the Hispanic population.” How much of the post-World Cup afterglow will be reflected in Major League Soccer attendance and viewership remains to be seen.
ESPN’s devotion to the World Cup may be serving as its audition for the Olympics. ESPN and NBC are the leading bidders for the rights to the 2014 and 2016 Winter and Summer Games, which will probably be auctioned next year. Skipper has vowed to carry everything live from the Olympics if ESPN wins, regardless of the time.
Of course, there are far more sports at an Olympics and many more entrenched audiences to satisfy.
“I’m told median age for the World Cup viewers is 37, and the Olympics 52,” said Brad Adgate, the senior vice president for research at Horizon Media, an advertising agency, indicating that the network that could reach younger viewers had an advantage. “The Olympics are a remnant of the cold war, and the World Cup is part of the country’s ethnic diversity, the way this country is gradually moving.”
E-mail: sandor@nytimes.comhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/sports/soccer/29sandomir.html?ref=sports---------------------------------------------
Tempting to say "so what... who cares if more Americans are watching what the world already know, the best sporting event in the world." I personally think it's wise to resist such temptation, the more people watching the game in the US means the more likely we are to see more football broadcast in the US... that's huge. Imagine a couple months ago there was an EPL match on Fox, not FSC, but FOX, network (free) TV.
Personally this is great news to see the numbers for the games... now ESPN should realize that next time they could step up and get not only the EPL games from FSC, but La Liga and Serie A from GOL as well. Better broadcasts (at least the visuals) are guaranteed... and for those in TnT, possibly even more games streamed from ESPN International. Speaking of 'streaming'... for those of us who happen to be at work or wherever, this also means more football on the computer, via ESPN3.com.
Good times.