We’re off and running in 2020! January featured just under 200 matches broadcast on TV. Given the holidays and several leagues on winter break, there’s no surprise the matches broadcast per day average was 6.1 – lower than the 2019 year-long average of 8.3. Despite the decrease there were still 20 different leagues and competitions shown across 19 different broadcast networks. Speaking of networks, TUDN has had a stranglehold on having the most individual broadcasts; however, beIN SPORTS took the crown in January.
For the first time in the 8+ years we’ve been tracking and releasing our Soccer on U.S. TV graphics, a women’s professional team is in the top three most-featured teams in a given month. Even more surprising, perhaps, is that the team is from Mexico. Cruz Azul femenil made as many TV appearances (6) as PSG in January – let that sink in. The rise in attention given to Liga MX Femenil is something to keep an eye on, especially when the 2018 two-leg final had almost 90,000 fans in attendance and the 2019 final wasn’t far behind.
- Tottenham vs. Liverpool | NBC / Telemundo | 1,484,000
- Liverpool vs. Manchester United | NBCSN / Telemundo | 1,202,000
- Tigres vs. Atlas | Univision | 920,000
- Newcastle vs. Chelsea | NBC / NBC Universo | 913,000
- Arsenal vs. Manchester United | NBCSN / NBC Universo | 828,000
- León vs. Pachuca | Univision | 822,000
- Tigres vs. Atletico San Luis | Univision | 787,000
- León vs. Querétaro | Univision | 775,000
- Pumas vs. Monterrey | Univision | 690,000
- Chelsea vs. Burnley | NBCSN / NBC Universo | 681,000
Despite the Premier League title race being all but over, viewership remains strong. Of the 20 most-watched matches in January, 60 percent were PL matches. In total, those 12 matches accumulated over 8.5 million viewers. The remaining eight most-watched matches of January were from Liga MX and accumulated 5.2 million viewers.
As always, thank you to World Soccer Talk and Live Soccer TV for the assistance with daily data collection.
Categories: Broadcast, Liga MX, Premier League, Uncategorized