World Cup once again shows its ability to pull in viewers worldwide
FIFA juggernaut and Wimbledon take a bite out of MLB all-star numbers
BULLS OF THE WEEK
With tiny Croatia’s run to the FIFA World Cup final and the return of Serbia’s Novak Djokovic to the Grand Slam winner’s circle at Wimbledon — both last Sunday — it sure was a bullish week in sport for the former Yugoslavia.
Djokovic was impressive throughout the grass court major, especially in the semifinal and final at the All-England Lawn Tennis Club. So was upstart Kevin Anderson, the hard-serving South African who upset Roger Federer in the quarter-finals, along with women’s champion Angelique Kerber of Germany and the greatest women’s tennis player of all time, Serena Williams, who valiantly reached the finals bouncing back from injury and her first year of motherhood.
It might have been the most impressive loss in Williams’ storied career of 23 Grand Slam singles titles.
Yet there was nothing more bullish or bigger in the business of sport last week than Russia 2018 and France’s 4-2 win over Croatia and the never-say-die underdog country of four million people.
Despite early losses by defending champion Germany (embarrassingly in the group stage), 2014 runner-up Argentina, 2016 European Cup champion Portugal and 2010 champion Spain (in the Round of 16) and Brazil (in the quarter-finals), the FIFA World Cup proved its television clout transcends no matter which team makes it to the final.
While expected to be slightly softer than the 1.1 billion who watched the Euro- South American matchup between Germany and Argentina four years ago, worldwide audiences for the final match are projecting to more than 107 million in at-home viewing in Europe and more than 900 million worldwide on TV and another 100 million or so in video streams.
Not surprisingly, Fox Sports lost about one-third of the audience ESPN had in 2014 when the United States gave it a homecountry hook.
Yet Canada, also without a team in the draw of 32, embraced the World Cup to the tune of an average national audience of four million for the final on CTV, TSN and RDS.
More than 9.3 million Canadians — or 26 per cent of the country — watched some of the final and 25.8 million (72 per cent) at least some of the tournament.
That puts the World Cup in the five “Great Lakes” of Canadian TV audiences, alongside the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games and annual events such as the Super Bowl (seven to eight million), IIHF world juniors (five to six million when Canada makes the final) and Grey Cup (four million).
BEARS OF THE WEEK
Major League Baseball’s allstar game was short on attention, in part because it was crowded out by the conclusion of the FIFA World Cup and Wimbledon, and the lead-up to the British Open.
The result was a record low national audience of 8.69 million American viewers, down by almost one-quarter of the 11.34 million from four years ago.
Yet there was nothing more bearish this week than the embarrassing Miami Dolphins leak that is bringing the NFL and NFLPA together to revisit the league’s so-called “national anthem policy.”
This issue is clearly kryptonite for commissioner Roger Goodell and the 32 team owners, who all look like deer in headlights when it comes to solutions that will not polarize the league and its fan base even more than the players’ protests already have.