USA-Germany: ESPN’s Second Highest-Rated Men’s World Cup Match Ever & Record Viewership on WatchESPN

Mike Humes June 27, 2014

Combined TV, Digital and Audio Coverage Posts Average Minute Audience Over 12 Million
ESPN Telecast Averages 6.7 US HH Rating and 10,771,000 Viewers
Match Generates WatchESPN Viewership Records, Provides 10 percent Lift to TV
Significant Viewership Growth Leads ESPN to its Most-Viewed and Highest-Rated Group Play Ever
Washington, D.C.; New York and San Francisco Highest-Rated Thru 48 Group Play Matches

ESPN’s coverage of the United States’ 1-0 loss to Germany in the final day of the 2014 FIFA World Cup group play – Thursday, June 26, at noon ET – generated an average minute audience of more than 12 million people across ESPN’s television, digital and audio platforms.

ESPN’s telecast averaged a 6.7 US HH rating and 10,771,000 viewers, making it the second highest-rated, and third most-viewed, men’s World Cup match on ESPN or ESPN2 ever. ESPN’s highest-rated World Cup match – a 9.6 US HH rating for the 2014 USA vs. Portugal contest on Sunday, June 22 – is also the most-viewed soccer match across all US television networks, averaging 18,220,000 viewers. ESPN’s second most-viewed men’s World Cup match – USA vs. Ghana on Monday, June 16, 2014 – averaged 11,093,000 viewers and a 6.3 US HH rating.
The match also garnered multiple audience records for WatchESPN, adding an additional 1,050,000 viewers in the average minute audience to ESPN’s telecast. Overall, the WatchESPN coverage had 3,200,000 unique viewers and 143,000,000 live minutes viewed. This accounted for a 10 percent lift to ESPN’s English-language TV audience
The telecast also ranks as ESPN’s most-viewed weekday, non-holiday, afternoon program on record.
At its highest point, ESPN’s telecast averaged 12,055,000 viewers and a 7.7 US HH rating from 1:30 to 2 p.m. WatchESPN’s peak of 1,700,000 concurrent users set a record for the platform.
In addition to television and digital, the USA vs. Germany match generated an estimated audio streaming average minute audience of 239,300.
In addition, ESPN.com and ESPNFC.com, led by Thursday’s World Cup matches, set platform records for unique visitors in one day, hitting 19,500,000 and 7,800,000, respectively.

ESPN Posts its Largest Audiences for Group Play Ever
Overall, ESPN has generated its largest viewership for the 48 opening round World Cup matches ever, averaging 3,540,000 viewers and 2.2 US HH rating for ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC telecasts combined. The 2014 averages also marks significant increases over ESPN’s opening round telecasts in 2010 and 2006: 46 percent and 109 percent (vs. 2,429,000 viewers in 2010 and 1,691,000 in 2006), and 38 percent and 83 percent (vs. 1.6 rating in 2010 and 1.2 in 2006), respectively.

In addition, ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC have posted significant audience increases in every key people and male demographic, highlighted by double-digit growth in the 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 categories.

WatchESPN, ESPN.com and ESPNFC.Com Growth Over 2010
WatchESPN is averaging 737,000 unique viewers and 31,100,000 minutes watched through 48 World Cup matches for increases of 149 percent and 143 percent, respectively. Additional digital highlights:

ESPNFC.com is also generating significant usage increases, averaging 4,700,000 daily unique visitors for a 35 percent increase over 2010 and 5,700,000 video starts per day for a 854 percent increase.
ESPN.com is seeing 13,700,000 average daily unique visitors (a 38 percent increase from 2010) and 12,800,000 video starts per day (up 170 percent).
The SportsCenter app is averaging 3,800,000 daily unique visitors for a 403 percent over 2010

Metered Markets
New York led all markets for ESPN’s USA vs. Germany telecast with a 9.7 rating, followed by San Diego (8.6), Sacramento (8.3), Seattle/Tacoma (8.1), Orlando (8.1), Baltimore (8.1), Columbus (8.1), West Palm Beach (7.9), Providence (7.6), San Francisco (7.2) and Austin (7.2).

Overall, Washington, D.C., continues to lead all markets for matches on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC through the 48 Group Play matches with a 4.0 average rating, followed by New York (3.7), San Francisco (3.5), Orlando (3.1), Los Angeles (3.1), Hartford/New Haven (3.1), San Diego (3.0), West Palm Beach (2.9), Miami/Fort Lauderdale (2.9), Richmond (2.9), Atlanta (2.9), Boston (2.9) and Columbus (2.9).

Upcoming ESPN World Cup Coverage
ESPN’s month-long coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil moves to the knockout stages, beginning Saturday, June 28, with a pair of Round of 16 matches on ABC and WATCH ABC: Brazil vs. Chile (11:30 a.m. ET) and Colombia vs. Uruguay (3:30 p.m. ET). ESPN’s coverage of the United States vs. Belgium on Tuesday, July 1, will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET.

ESPN’s comprehensive coverage of the tournament includes all 64 matches televised live on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, ESPN3 and WatchESPN, as well as 54 matches on ESPN Deportes and another 10 on ESPN Deportes+. ABC’s matches will also available on WATCH ABC. Schedule.

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