Earlier in the month, FOX Sports presented several key matchups across its portfolio of rights for soccer and women’s basketball, taking place amid a packed day of sports coverage on broadcast networks. The MLS Cup between the LA Galaxy and New York Red Bulls averaged 468,000 viewers on FOX and FOX Deportes, which is down 47% from the combined linear audience from last season. This matchup aired on Saturday, Dec. 7 at 4 p.m. EST amid the media rights deal between Major League Soccer and FOX Corporation, which recently completed its second of four years. The English-language telecast on FOX collected an average of 427,000 viewers, down 48% year-over-year, while the Spanish-language telecast on FOX Deportes averaged 41,000 viewers, a 45% year-over-year decline.
The championship matchup took place alongside championship weekend in college football, something that did not occur last season. At that time, the only matchup that was airing was the annual Army-Navy game, which started one hour earlier and amassed 7.2 million viewers on CBS. This year’s MLS Cup game was also available to watch using the MLS Season Pass streaming platform through Apple TV+, which does not collect ratings through Nielsen Media Research. Nielsen estimated through its Streaming Platform Ratings that the game averaged 287,000 viewers on the OTT streaming service. The company recently completed its second season under a 10-year media rights deal reportedly worth $2.5 billion.
Just after the MLS Cup game, FOX presented a women’s basketball doubleheader from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The FOX Sports division worked in tandem with Shark Beauty for the inaugural Women’s Championship Classic with two marquee matchups with teams from conferences including the Big Ten, SEC, Big East and ACC. The opening matchup between Iowa and Tennessee came down to the wire and averaged 560,000 viewers on the broadcast network. This matchup ran over its allotted time, causing the start of the second game to begin at 9:45 p.m. EST.
The UConn Huskies, led by head coach Geno Auriemma with stars Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, accrued a large lead on the Louisville Cardinals by halftime. Ratings data divulges that the matchup averaged 466,000 viewers, closing out the night of competition. Tim Brando and Sarah Kustok were on the call for the doubleheader action, and both games finished above the company’s average of 436,000 viewers for women’s college basketball games last season. FOX aired the most-watched men’s and women’s regular-season college basketball matchups on any network during the 2023-24 schedule.
The media conglomerate has rights deals with several NCAA conferences, including the Big Ten, Big 12, Mountain West and Big East. The Big East Conference agreed to a new six-year television deal that maintains FOX Sports as its lead partner and also adds NBC Sports and TNT Sports to present games. FOX recently launched its College Basketball Friday property that includes 13 key matchups throughout the year, concluding with the Big East Men’s semifinal games on Friday, March 14.
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