The most highly-anticipated MLS game of the entire 2024 season thus far delivered dismal ratings across US television. The October 2nd game between Columbus Crew and Inter Miami featured two teams fighting for the Supporters’ Shield. It also featured the two best coaches in MLS (Wilfried Nancy and Tata Martino) as well as the biggest stars of the league in action (Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Cucho Hernandez).
If any MLS game could have delivered impressive TV viewership, this was it. The game lived up to its promise on the field as the entertaining spectacle ended in a 3-2 win for Inter Miami. Columbus Crew missed a late penalty that could have tied the game.
MLS game generates poor TV ratings across FOX Sports
On television, the viewership was poor. Only 76,000 people watched the game on FS1. On FOX Deportes, the audience averaged 81,000. Combined, the total viewership was 157,000, according to TV Media Blog.
Of course, the viewership number didn’t include MLS Season Pass. More on that later.
In contrast, a recent game between Ipswich Town and Aston VIlla on September 29 averaged 381,000 viewers. Likewise, Brighton against Nottingham Forest on September 22 averaged 370,000 viewers.
For the 2024 season thus far, Premier League games are averaging 426,000 viewers on the USA Network. That’s an increase of 20% compared to what the Premier League was getting on USA Network as recently as 2021. Of course, that’s just the USA Network. Viewership for the bigger games more recently has broken records. For example, Chelsea against Manchester City on opening weekend averaged 2.218 million viewers. It nearly eclipsed the 2.6 million who watched Manchester City vs Arsenal last season.
The MLS Season Pass mystery
So, what about MLS Season Pass? Apple TV’s streaming service is a mystery. MLS hasn’t leaked any subscription numbers recently. The last reported number was 2 million subscribers as of December 2023. Since then, MLS dropped…
Source link : https://worldsoccertalk.com/tv/columbus-miami-biggest-mls-game-delivers-poor-tv-ratings/
Author : Christopher Harris
Publish date : 2024-10-12 22:00:00
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