Monday, June 19, 2006

World Cup ratings surprise ABC & ESPN

ABC and ESPN's ratings for World Cup have been excellent despite the cynics and obvious contempt of the soccer hating sports media in this country. The Czech Republic-USA match was the highest rated program thus far in 2006 on ESPN 2, and the USA-Italy game garnered a 5.8 overnight rating for the ABC telecast. ABC also had a 3.1 rating for its telecast of Trinidad &Tobago versus Sweden and is averaging a 2.8 overall rating on weekend games, including games that start early in the morning US time. This is compared with an average rating of 1.5 for Prime Time NHL Stanley Cup finals telecasts on NBC. OLN's cable telecasts of the NHL playoffs averaged a 0.4 cable rating as compared to ESPN2's average daily rating of 1.8 for World Cup telecasts. Keep in mind the Soccer broadcasts are during the day when viewership is typically much lower than Prime Time when the NHL games are being broadcast. Yet the sports media in this country by and large assumes more people are interested in the NHL than the "foreign" game of Soccer. Or is it just that the media is fueled by Northeastern elites who seek to force Hockey down our throats?

Says ESPN senior vice president Artie Bulgrin, "I'm amazed at the interest." That's good news as we continue to build a soccer culture in this country.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's about time! Soccer can have a break through in this nation if we can make the 2nd round and face Brazil.

Hernandez said...

this is nice news. i have been watching on univision. mexico needs a win tomorrow. what does everybody think of the usa robbery the other day? italy is known for rough play and dirty and buying officials as well.

Anonymous said...

Good to see you guys are becoming a real Football nation.

Anonymous said...

Mike Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser debated this subject tonight on PTI. Wilbon is pro-soccer, Korheiser hates it, and talked about how strange and weird soccer was.

Anonymous said...

i cannot believe people are watching this boring crap.

Hernandez said...

Today I am watching the matches on the english tv to improve the viewings.

Anonymous said...

I'm enjoying the cross promotion for the World Cup on the entire ESPN/ABC network.

During MLB, they flash the countdown to USA v. Ghana on the ticker! 13:00:00