Thanks to the United States national team, the Women’s World Cup is proving to be a strong performer for Fox and Fox Sports 1.
The 8.4 million viewers who watched the Americans defeat Germany, 2-0, in Tuesday’s first semifinal brought the tournament average for all games to 1.3 million, up 45 percent from the 899,000 on ESPN and ESPN2 four years ago. Japan defeated England, 2-1, in the second semifinal Wednesday night, with the final scheduled for Sunday at 7 p.m. Eastern on Fox.
Mike Mulvihill, Fox’s senior vice president for programming and research, cited three factors for the increased viewership from 2011.