Sports Media News

ESPN Digital Media Scores with 2010 FIFA World Cup

4.9 billion minutes spent on World Cup content across multiple platforms

In an extraordinary month of FIFA World Cup coverage across multiple platforms, ESPN Digital Media – which includes ESPN.com, ESPN3.com, ESPN Mobile Web, ESPN Mobile Apps and ESPN Mobile TV – garnered nearly 4.9 billion minutes of usage of World Cup content, while delivering to  millions of sports fans 24/7 news, analysis, commentary, and interactivity around the world’s biggest sporting event.  An average of more than 110,000 fans per minute used ESPN Digital Media to consume World Cup content during the 31 days of the tournament.

ESPN3.com

The World Cup on ESPN3.com was truly a breakout event for the network.  Matches were viewed by 7.4 million unique viewers.  In total, ESPN3.com generated 942 million minutes of viewing or more than two hours per unique viewer.  Other highlights:

• All 54 live matches were viewed by an average of 114,000 persons per minute;
• The Spain-Germany semifinal was viewed by 355,000 people per minute during the live match, making it ESPN3.com’s largest average audience ever.

ESPN.com

World Cup content on ESPN.com (including ESPNsoccernet.com and ESPNdeportes/copa-mundial) delivered 128 million visits and 431 million page views from June 11 through July 11.  The site’s front page, which prominently featured World Cup news, video and scores, saw 304 million visits and 663 million page views.

Additionally, 54 million video starts came from World Cup highlights, news and analysis content on ESPN.com, generating more streams than for any other content over the 31 days.

ESPN Mobile

ESPN’s mobile TV offering reached 1 million unique viewers during the event and registered 93 million total minutes of viewing, setting viewership records on major mobile TV platforms MobiTV and FLO TV.

Additionally, ESPN’s mobile offerings (ESPN mobile Web, ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup App and ESPN ScoreCenter App) generated 98 million visits and 520 million page views to World Cup content.  Video on the mobile Web and app were accessed for 6.2 million video views of World Cup highlights, news and analysis.

The app itself was downloaded more than 2.5 million times and averaged one million users accessing it per day during the tournament.

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FIFA World Cup Rating Through Semifinals:  Up 36%

Netherlands-Spain in Championship Sunday on ABC; Digital Platforms Setting Records

After 62 of the 64 games of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, ESPN networks (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2) have averaged a 1.9 U.S. rating, up 36% from 1.4 through the same point – the semifinals – in 2006.  The average household audience is up 41% (from 1,575,000 to 2,227,000) and the viewer audience (P2+) is up 45% (from 2,057,000 to 2,984,000).

The key male demos – ages 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 – are up 27%, 46% and 50%, respectively.  The top-rated markets through 62 games:  Miami (3.8), New York and Washington, D.C. (3.4), San Diego (3.3) and San Francisco (3.2).

The 2010 event is also outpacing 1994, when the World Cup was held in the U.S., to be the most-watched FIFA World Cup in U.S. television history.  Through the quarterfinals, this year’s competition averaged 2,198,000 homes, up 32% from 1,664,000 16 years ago (based on a 1.9 rating this year and 1.8 in 1994.).

The Final Weekend

The quadrennial tournament – the largest global sporting in the world – will climax this weekend with the third-place game and the final, both broadcast on ABC and ABC HD and available live on ESPN 3D, ESPN Deportes and ESPN Mobile TV, as well as on demand later on ESPN3.com.

• On Saturday, July, 10, Germany and Uruguay will play the third-place game at 2 p.m. ET. Ian Darke and John Harkes will call the match from Port Elizabeth.
• On Sunday, July 11, the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final will start at 1:30 p.m. with a one-hour preview followed by the Netherlands vs. Spain from Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa. Martin Tyler and Efan Ekoku will call the match, which will crown a first-ever World Cup champion.  ESPN’s roster of studio analysts will include former Dutch National Team player Ruud Gullit, Spaniard and manager of Premier League club Wigan Athletic Roberto Martinez, Steve McManaman and Alexi Lalas. John Harkes will join Bob Ley at Soccer City for pre-, halftime and postmatch analysis.
• ESPN Radio will broadcast both games, with Glenn Davis and Kyle Martino calling the third-place game while JP Dellacamera and Smyth provide play-by-play and analysis on the final.

ESPN Digital Media

ESPN Digital Media – which includes ESPN3.com, ESPN.com, ESPN Mobile Web, ESPN Mobile Apps and ESPN Mobile TV – has seen more than 4.4 billion minutes of usage to World Cup content over the 28 days of the tournament to date, according to Omniture.  On average, 110,000 persons per minute have been using ESPN Digital Media platforms to consume World Cup content across every day during the tournament.

ESPN3.com posted its most-viewed live event ever with the Spain-Germany semifinal, an average audience of 355,000 during the live game window (topping the 328,000 for U.S. – Algeria on June 23).  World Cup matches on ESPN3.com have been viewed by 6.9 million unique viewers, generating 14.7 million hours of viewing (over two hours per viewer) through July 6.

ESPN.com’s World Cup content (including ESPN Soccernet and ESPN Deportes/copa-mundial) garnered 122 million visits and 414 million page views from June 11-July 8.  Additionally:

• Users have spent an average of just under 10 minutes per visit engaging with World Cup content.
• ESPN.com’s front page, which prominently features World Cup news, video and scores, has seen 275 million visits and 604 million page views for June 11-July 8.

ESPN Mobile (including the ESPN mobile Web, ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup App and ESPN ScoreCenter App) generated 94 million visits and 499 million page views to World Cup content through July 8.  The ESPN World Cup App has also been downloaded nearly 2.5 million times and has averaged over 1.1 million unique devices accessing the app per day across the tournament.

World Cup Conference Call Replay

In advance of this weekend’s FIFA World Cup final, commentators Martin Tyler and Efan Ekoku, ESPN’s Jed Drake, executive producer, and Scott Guglielmino, senior vice president, programming, participated in a media conference call Thursday morning. A full replay of the call is available here.

ESPN Inc.’s 2010 FIFA World Cup Coverage in the United States

South Africa 2010 is ESPN’s seventh 2010 FIFA World Cup and coverage of the event is the most comprehensive in company history. ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC will air all 64 matches live and in high definition. ESPN3.com, ESPN’s signature broadband network available in more than 50 million homes, will feature live English-language simulcasts of matches on ESPN and ESPN2. ESPN 3D will feature 25 matches.  ESPN Mobile TV will show all matches. ESPN Deportes, the Spanish-language all sports network, will air more than 50 matches in Portuguese live in the U.S., and ESPN Radio will broadcast all 64 matches. Additionally, ESPN will present television studio programming from site in South Africa, offering U.S. sports fans the most comprehensive news and information coverage throughout the month-long soccer showcase.

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U.S. – Algeria: ESPN’s Highest-Rated and Most-Watched Soccer Telecast

Thru 40 Games on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, Ratings Up 40% and Viewership Up 49% vs. 2006

ESPN3.com Logs Largest U.S. Audience for a Sports Event on the Web

Wednesday morning’s United States vs. Algeria FIFA World Cup match on ESPN – in which the Americans scored a dra matic goal in stoppage time to earn a 1-0 win and a spot in the Round of 16 – is the highest-rated and most-watched soccer game in the history of ESPN networks, delivering a 4.6 rating (4.0 household U.S. rating), 4,582,000 households and 6,161,000 viewers for the two-hour contest (10 a.m. ET – noon).

The previous households record was set five days earlier with the U.S.-Slovenia match (June 18) – 3,906,000.

Excluding holidays, ESPN’s coverage of the U.S.-Algeria game ranks as the most-watched weekday morning telecast ever for ESPN, surpassing the U.S.-Germany World Cup match from eight years ago (June 21, 2002) – 4.4 rating and 5,335,000 viewers.

The game ranked as the highest-rated program of the day on any network among M18-34 and M18-49.

Through Wednesday, June 23 (40 games on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2), the 2010 World Cup is averaging a 1.8 U.S. rating (for the two-hour match window) — up 40% from 2006 (1.3).  Household impressions are up 46% (from 1,389,000 to 2,025,000) and P2+ impressions are up 49% (from 1,789,000 to 2,658,000).

San Diego was the top market for yesterday’s Team USA game, delivering an 8.9 rating – all the more impressive considering the 7 a.m. local start time.  Rounding out the top 10 were Baltimore (6.7), San Francisco (6.1), Washington, D.C. (5.4), Sacramento (5.4), Houston (5.4), Las Vegas (5.4), Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (5.3), New York (5.3) and West Palm Beach (5.3). San Diego was also the top market for both the U.S./England game on ABC (11.5) and the U.S./Slovenia game on ESPN (8.5).

U.S. – Algeria Sets Records for ESPN Digital Platforms

ESPN3.com – The U.S. vs. Algeria game marked a milestone for online video, logging the largest U.S. audience ever for a sports event on the web.  It attracted nearly 1.1 million unique viewers with an average time spent viewing of 43 minutes. The match also averaged 328,000 viewers per minute in its live coverage.  When combined with the concurrent England vs. Slovenia match, ESPN3.com reached its peak point of viewing at around 11:30 a.m. ET when 513,000 viewers were watching each minute.

For the four World Cup matches on June 23, ESPN3.com captured 1.4 million viewers who watched for 84 million total minutes.  Through 14 days of World Cup coverage (June 10-23), five million viewers have watched the World Cup on ESPN3.com and consumed more than 9.2 million total hours.

ESPN.com & ESPNSoccernet.com – ESPNsoccernet.com set an all-time record Wednesday with more visits than any day in its history. On June 23, ESPN.com World Cup content generated 8.8 million visits and 33.3 million page views.  To date, the site has had 68.7 million visits and 239.3 million page views of World Cup coverage.

Additionally, GameCast for the U.S. vs. Algeria match reached one million visitors who spent 10.1 million total minutes watching the match. ESPN.com also logged a record day of delivering live scoring updates to fans.  The site peaked at 1.7 million concurrent users, beating its previous record by 42 percent.

ESPN Digital Audio – ESPNRadio.com logged the largest concurrent audience ever to a single stream according to Ando Media.  The player peaked at 180,000 listeners connected to the U.S. vs. Algeria match, nearly doubling its previous record for the U.S. vs. Slovenia (June 18).  Additionally, ESPNRadio.com saw record online traffic with 668,000 visits and 1.1 million page views throughout the day, according to Omniture.

From June 11-20, the World Cup had generated nearly 3.8 million total listening hours, with an average time spent listening of 47 minutes.

ESPN Mobile — June 23 was the most-trafficked day to-date for World Cup content across all of ESPN’s mobile platforms. ESPN’s FIFA World Cup 2010 iPhone app delivered 3.2 million visits and 19.9 million page views for the day.  Since the World Cup began, the app has seen 30.8 million visits and 200.6 million page views. World Cup content on the ESPN mobile Web site also added another 2.4 million visits and 13.7 million page views to the mobile tally.  To date, the mobile Web has generated 20.2 million visits and 90.7 million page views.

Nearly 650,000 users accessed the U.S. vs. Algeria match via mobile GameCast and generated 7.9 million minutes of usage.

World Cup Schedule – Round of 16

The 2010 FIFA World Cup continues with the Round of 16 elimination matches starting Saturday, June 26, on ESPN and ABC. Six of the eight matchups have already been determined, including the highly anticipated U.S. vs. Ghana (Saturday, 2 p.m./ABC), Germany vs. England (Sunday, 9:30 a.m./ESPN) and Argentina vs. Mexico (Sunday, 2 p.m./ABC). Round of 16 matches will also be available on ESPN3.com, ESPN Radio, ESPN 3D, ESPN Mobile TV and ESPN Deportes.

ESPN Inc.’s 2010 FIFA World Cup Coverage in the United States

South Africa 2010 is ESPN’s seventh 2010 FIFA World Cup and coverage of the event is the most comprehensive in company history. ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC will air all 64 matches live and in high definition. ESPN3.com, ESPN’s signature broadband network available in more than 50 million homes, will feature live English-language simulcasts of matches on ESPN and ESPN2. ESPN 3D will feature 25 matches.  ESPN Mobile TV will show all matches. ESPN Deportes, the Spanish-language all sports network, will air more than 50 matches in Portuguese live in the U.S., and ESPN Radio will broadcast all 64 matches. Additionally, ESPN will present television studio programming from site in South Africa, offering U.S. sports fans the most comprehensive news and information coverage throughout the month-long soccer showcase.

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U.S. – Slovenia: ESPN’s Most-Watched Soccer Telecast
Rating for 23 Games on ABC & ESPN up 60% vs. 2006
Digital Platforms Set Records

Friday morning’s United States vs. Slovenia FIFA World Cup match on ESPN – in which the Americans overcame a 2-0 halftime deficit to earn a 2-2 draw – is the most-watched soccer game among households in the history of ESPN networks – 3,906,000, based on a 3.9 fast national rating for the two-hour contest (10 a.m. ET – noon).  It ranks third most-watched among viewers (P2+ – 5,200,000), behind the Germany/Italy semifinal (5,850,000) on July 4, 2006, and the US/Germany quarterfinal on June 21, 2002 (5,335,000).

Through Friday, June 18 and 23 games on ABC and ESPN, the 2010 World Cup is averaging a 1.9  U.S. rating (for the two-hour match window) — up 60% from 2006 (1.2).  Household impressions are up 66% (from 1,336,000 to 2,333,000) and P2+ impressions are up 71% (from 1,720,000 to 2,950,000).

San Diego was the top market for yesterday’s Team USA game, delivering an 8.5 rating – all the more impressive considering the 7 a.m. local start time.  Rounding out the top five were Washington, DC (6.4), Miami (6.2), West Palm Beach (5.9), and San Francisco (5.7). San Diego was also the top market for the USA/England game on ABC (11.5).

USA/Slovenia Sets Records for ESPN3.com and ESPNRadio.com
ESPN3.com – The U.S. vs. Slovenia was the most-viewed event ever on ESPN3.com with 798,911 unique viewers, including both live and on-demand viewing; 624,425 hours consumed; and an average time spent of 47 minutes.

Live and replay World Cup matches have been viewed on ESPN3.com by almost 3.4 million unique viewers from June 11-18, generating 342.7 million minutes of viewing (over an hour and a half per viewer).

ESPN.com – World Cup content (includes ESPN Soccernet and ESPNDeportes/cop-mundial) delivered 40.4 million visits and 137.9 million page views from June 11-18.

ESPNRadio.com – the US vs. Slovenia game is the most-listened to stream in the 10-year history of ESPNRadio.com, reaching close to 100,000 concurrent listeners in the final moments of the game (source: ando media).

ESPN Mobile — generated 1.8 million World Cup video views from June 11-18.

World Cup Schedule – Remainder of Opening Round
The third and final match for the U.S. in the Opening Round – Wednesday, June 23 vs. Algeria at 9:30 a.m. – will be aired on ESPN, ESPN HD, ESPN3.com and ESPN Radio.  With a victory, the Americans would advance to the round of 16 and the start of the elimination tournament games.

Date    Time (ET)       Network Match   Group   Site
Sun 6/20        7 a.m.  ESPN/ESPN360.com        Slovakia vs. Paraguay   F       Bloemfontein
9:30 a.m.       ESPN/ESPN360.com        Italy vs. New Zealand   F       Nelspruit
2 p.m.  ABC     Brazil vs. Ivory Coast  G       Johannesburg
Mon 6/21        7 a.m.  ESPN/ESPN360.com        Portugal vs. Korea DPR  G       Cape Town
9:30 a.m.       ESPN/ESPN360.com        Chile vs. Switzerland   H       Port Elizabeth
2 p.m.  ESPN/ESPN360.com        Spain vs. Honduras      H       Johannesburg
Tue 6/22        9:30 a.m.       ESPN/ESPN360.com        Mexico vs. Uruguay      A       Rustenburg
9:30 a.m.       ESPN2/ESPN360.com       France vs. South Africa A       Bloemfontein
2 p.m.  ESPN2/ESPN360.com       Nigeria vs. Korea Republic      B       Durban
2 p.m.  ESPN/ESPN360.com        Greece vs. Argentina    B       Polokwane
Wed 6/23        9:30 a.m.       ESPN2/ESPN360.com       Slovenia vs. England    C       Port Elizabeth
9:30 a.m.       ESPN/ESPN360.com        USA vs. Algeria C       Pretoria
2 p.m.  ESPN/ESPN360.com        Ghana vs. Germany       D       Johannesburg
2 p.m.  ESPN2/ESPN360.com       Australia vs. Serbia    D       Nelspruit
Thu 6/24        9:30 a.m.       ESPN/ESPN360.com        Slovakia vs. Italy      F       Johannesburg
9:30 a.m.       ESPN2/ESPN360.com       Paraguay vs. New Zealand        F       Polokwane
2 p.m.  ESPN/ESPN360.com        Denmark vs. Japan       E       Rustenburg
2 p.m.  ESPN2/ESPN360.com       Cameroon vs. Netherlands        E       Cape Town
Fri 6/25        9:30 a.m.       ESPN/ESPN360.com        Portugal vs. Brazil     G       Durban
9:30 a.m.       ESPN2/ESPN360.com       Ivory Coast vs. Korea DPR       G       Nelspruit
2 p.m.  ESPN/ESPN360.com        Chile vs. Spain H       Pretoria
2 p.m.  ESPN2/ESPN360.com       Switzerland vs. Honduras        H       Bloemfontein

ESPN Inc.’s 2010 FIFA World Cup Coverage in the United States
South Africa 2010 is ESPN’s seventh 2010 FIFA World Cup<http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/index.html> and coverage of the event is the most comprehensive in company history. ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC will air all 64 matches live and in high definition. ESPN3.com, ESPN’s signature broadband network available in more than 50 million homes, will feature live English-language simulcasts of matches on ESPN and ESPN2. ESPN 3D will feature 25 matches.  ESPN Mobile TV will show all matches. ESPN Deportes, the Spanish-language all sports network, will air more than 50 matches in Portuguese live in the U.S., and ESPN Radio will broadcast all 64 matches. Additionally, ESPN will present television studio programming from site in South Africa, offering U.S. sports fans the most comprehensive news and information coverage throughout the month-long soccer showcase.

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