beIN SPORTS grew its overall reach in 2017 by 9%, increasing the total viewers from 71 million in 2016 to 77.2 million in 2017.

The 9% increase is impressive considering that the total number of households the English-language network is in has declined during the past twelve months (similar to other TV networks across the United States). As of December 2016, beIN SPORTS was in 23.3 million homes compared to 22 million as of November 2017. While the English-language network saw a drop in number of subscribers, the Spanish-language beIN SPORTS en Español saw an increase from 18.2 million in December 2016 to 18.4 million in November 2017.

With more than half a million minutes watched in 2017, beIN SPORTS networks have the highest percentage of soccer programming among all other cable sports networks in the United States. There’s no doubt that a large contributing factor to the growth of viewership on beIN SPORTS was the extensive coverage of LaLiga. Every Real Madrid and Barcelona match continues to be shown on both beIN SPORTS and beIN SPORTS en Español each weekend during the season. In fact, beIN SPORTS en Español’s live coverage of LaLiga matches delivered an average 116,000 total viewers per telecast, a 4% increase from 2016.

The top-performing match on beIN SPORTS en Español, outside of El Clásico, was Real Madrid vs. Valencia on October 14 delivering 281,000 viewers.

beIN SPORTS also benefitted from its coverage of the World Cup qualifiers. Some of the highlights include: beIN SPORTS en Español’s coverage of the World Cup Qualifiers delivered 167,000 total viewers per telecast, while the World Cup qualifier playoffs delivered an average of 432,000 total viewers. beIN Sports Español aired nine of the top-15 most-viewed World Cup qualifiers among all networks, regardless of language.

In 2017, beIN SPORTS celebrated its fifth year anniversary. The year was marked by continued expansion and a growing appeal among younger sports fans, attracting a younger audience than most cable sports networks, according to Nielsen.