NEW YORK (AP) — The United States’ first 1-1 draw with Wales in the World Cup was watched by 11.7 million on its English and Spanish broadcasts, 5% more than the United States’ 2-2 win. 1 on Ghana. start the 2014 tournament.
Monday’s game, which began at 2 p.m. EST, was watched by 8,306,000 for Fox’s English-language broadcast and 3.4 million for the Spanish-language offering on Telemundo, Telemundo digital and Peacock, part of Comcast Corp’s NBCUniversal.
Fox said the match was watched by 563,000 broadcasts, the network’s most for the group stage since it took over US English-language rights for the 2018 tournament. There were 1.0 million broadcasts on Telemundo and Peacock, the most broadcast World Cup game in Spanish.
The 2014 US premiere in Brazil, which began at 6 pm EDT on a Saturday in mid-June, was watched by 11.1 million on ESPN and 4.8 million on Univision.
That was below the 17.3 million on ABC and Univision for the Americans’ first 1-1 draw against England in South Africa in 2010, a game that began at 2:30 p.m. EDT on a Saturday in mid-June.
Fox’s average of 4,026,000 for its first three broadcasts this year was 193% higher than the 1,374,000 for the first three games of 2018, when the US didn’t qualify.
Telemundo’s coverage averaged 2.6 million in the first four games, 73% more than the 1.5 million in the first four games four years ago.
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