2010 World Cup Ratings: Time Is On American Soccer’s Side
Many have observed that World Cup ratings on American television grew 41% from 2006 to 2010, with the 24.4 million tuning in for the World Cup final on ABC and Univision a record for any soccer game on American television, ever (that’s not counting those watching at bars or via the internet, where numbers were also way up: espn3.com attracted 7.4 million unique viewers during the tournament).
That’s all great. But there are a few more numbers that might actually speak more to the likely future relative growth of the sport’s popularity here, at least on television.
The median ages for viewers of major sporting events on American television over the past year, via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
World Cup: 37.7
NBA Finals: 40.7
Super Bowl: 43.0
Daytona 500: 44.9
Stanley Cup: 44.9
World Series: 49.9
U.S. Open golf: 57.8
According to Nielson, 49% of the 2010 World Cup television audience was between the ages 18 and 49. 57% was male, 43% female. I don’t have any demographic breakdowns for ethnicity, but in Spanish-language television, Univision’s broadcasts were up 50% in total ratings, with 8,821,358 tuning in for the 2010 World Cup final, and was particularly strong in the 18-34 age demographic (3,259,553 viewers for the final in that group, up 53% on 2006).
International soccer broadcasts are, then, right in the sweet spot for sponsorship, says the Sports Business Journal: “Brands can expect a better return on their sports marketing objectives if they target fans age 18-34, non-Caucasian fans, and/or households with kids.”
Either way, just a little more numerical proof that soccer has demographics on its side in North America.
As a soccer nut from back in the the days of Soccer Made in Germany these numbers are nice to see and, damn, my niche sport is going away. I’ve been in Chile throughout the World Cup and Chilean and Argentine soccer shows regularly spoke about the USMNT and gave it a fair amount of credit. The names of the US players and their quality have struck a cord. Questions abound about whether or not soccer is really growing in The United States. My answer? I ask the person how big the population of Chile is? (Answer: 16 million +) I then remind the person that The United States has more than 16 million people playing soccer on a regular basis.
…my second point is to ask them why they think the USMNT isn’t better? Quite frankly, I think those days are coming.
I usually try to stay way from all caucasian audiences whenever possible, whether it be a business venture or any other event. Must….target…..young Hispanic household stereotypes………must……….buy…….el budweiser
If we can take the Super Bowl’s number as what you get when all audiences are interested, then baseball really ought to be worried about theirs. That’s a 7 year difference there.