The Scottish Premiership made its FOX Sports 1 debut on Saturday morning averaging only 23,000 viewers for the first Old Firm clash in league play since 2012. In recent years, the Scottish Premiership has been relegated to FOX Soccer Plus and the streaming platform FOX Soccer 2GO. With these kind of numbers, we can see why. Although FOX Sports did little to promote the match, it’s unlikely that promotion would have had a large effect as the Manchester derby kicked off just 30 minutes later on NBCSN. That match averaged 623,000 viewers.
Also on FOX Sports this weekend, coverage of the Bundesliga averaged 61,800 viewers peaking with 83,000 that watched Schalke take on Bayern Munich Friday on FOX Sports 1. FOX Sports also began its coverage of the National Women’s Soccer League, featuring two matches this week and averaging 68,000 viewers between them.
As the NFL season kicked in the United States, it brought with it another poor weekend for MLS TV ratings. Only the Spanish networks saw increases in viewership this week as English-language viewership of MLS continues to decline. MLS has failed to completely recover from the huge hit to viewership the league took from the Olympics. MLS is averaging only 179,889 viewers since the start of August representing a 57% drop from 315,518 viewers in the first 19 weeks of the season. On top of all of this, despite the return of Landon Donovan to LA Galaxy, the LA Galaxy versus Orlando game this past Sunday could only muster 97,000 viewers on FOX Sports 1.
Liga MX matches averaged in excess of 830,000 viewers across 5 match windows this past weekend, the most for a Liga MX matchweek this Apertura. Viewership peaked on Saturday evening with 1.174 million watching Liga MX matches on Univision, Univision Deportes and Galavision and 1.3 million watching Chivas take on Chiapas on Univision and Univision Deportes.
Here are the TV viewing audiences:
Domestic numbers for the week:
| Date | Competition | Start Time | Home | Away | Network 1 | Network 2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9/7/16 | NWSL | 8:00 PM | Chicago Red Stars | FC Kansas City | Fox Sports 1; 76,000 | — | 76,000 |
| 9/9/16 | MLS | 8:00 PM | Sporting Kansas City | Houston Dynamo | UniMás; 184,000 | — | 184,000 |
| 9/10/16 | NASL | 7:00 PM | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | Indy Eleven | — | beIN Español; 12,000 | 12,000 |
| 9/11/16 | MLS | 1:00 PM | New York Red Bulls | DC United | ESPN; 238,000 | ESPN Deportes; Not available | 238,000 |
| 9/11/16 | MLS | 7:00 PM | Los Angeles Galaxy | Orlando City SC | Fox Sports 1; 97,000 | Fox Deportes; 53,000 | 150,000 |
| 9/11/16 | NWSL | 9:30 PM | Portland Thorns | West New York Flash | Fox Sports 1; 60,000 | — | 60,000 |
Foreign numbers for the week:
| Date | Competition | Start Time | Home | Away | Network 1 | Network 2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9/9/16 | Bundesliga | 2:30 PM | Schalke 04 | Bayern Munich | Fox Sports 1; 83,000 | — | 83,000 |
| 9/9/16 | La Liga | 2:45 PM | Real Sociedad | Espanyol | — | beIN Español; 21,000 | 21,000 |
| 9/10/16 | Scottish Premiership | 7:00 AM | Celtic | Rangers | Fox Sports 1; 23,000 | — | 23,000 |
| 9/10/16 | La Liga | 7:00 AM | Celta Vigo | Atletico Madrid | — | beIN Español; 22,000 | 22,000 |
| 9/10/16 | Premier League | 7:30 AM | Manchester United | Manchester City | NBCSN; 623,000 | — | 623,000 |
| 9/10/16 | Bundesliga | 9:30 AM | Bayer Leverkusen | Hamburg | Fox Sports 1; 26,000 | Fox Deportes; 46,000 | 72,000 |
| 9/10/16 | Bundesliga | 9:30 AM | Freiburg | Mönchengladbach | Fox Sports 2; 5,000 | — | 5,000 |
| 9/10/16 | La Liga | 10:00 AM | Real Madrid | Osasuna | beIN Sports; 92,000 | beIN Español; 141,000 | 233,000 |
| 9/10/16 | Premier League | 10:00 AM | Stoke City | Tottenham Hotspur | CNBC; 112,000 | — | 112,000 |
| 9/10/16 | Premier League | 10:00 AM | Arsenal | Southampton | NBCSN; 480,000 | NBC Universo; 30,000 | 510,000 |
| 9/10/16 | Serie A | 12:00 PM | Juventus | Sassuolo | beIN SPORTS; 43,000 | — | 43,000 |
| 9/10/16 | La Liga | 12:00 PM | Sevilla | Las Palmas | — | beIN Español; 84,000 | 84,000 |
| 9/10/16 | Bundesliga | 12:30 PM | RB Leipzig | Borussia Dortmund | Fox Sports 2; 16,000 | Fox Deportes; 16,000 | 44,000 |
| 9/10/16 | Premier League | 12:30 PM | Liverpool | Leicester City | NBCSN; 502,000 | NBC Universo; 62,000 | 564,000 |
| 9/10/16 | La Liga | 2:30 PM | Barcelona | Alaves | beIN Sports; 102,000 | beIN Español; 300,000 | 402,000 |
| 9/10/16 | Liga MX | 6:00 PM | Cruz Azul | Club América | — | Univision Deportes; 676,000 | 676,000 |
| 9/10/16 | Liga MX | 8:00 PM | Monterrey | Tijuana | Univision; 670,000 | Univision Deportes; 430,000 | 1,100,000 |
| 9/10/16 | Liga MX | 8:06 PM | León | Atlas FC | — | Galavision; 74,000 | 74,000 |
| 9/10/16 | Liga MX | 10:00 PM | Chivas | Chiapas | Univision; 777,000 | Univision Deportes; 523,000 | 1,300,000 |
| 9/11/16 | Serie A | 9:00 AM | Roma | Sampdoria | beIN Sports; 26,000 | — | 26,000 |
| 9/11/16 | Bundesliga | 9:30 AM | Werder Bremen | Augsburg | Fox Sports 1; 56,000 | Fox Deportes; 7,000 | 63,000 |
| 9/11/16 | La Liga | 10:00 AM | Valencia | Real Betis | — | beIN Español; 22,000 | 22,000 |
| 9/11/16 | Premier League | 11:00 AM | Swansea City | Chelsea | NBCSN; 406,000 | — | 406,000 |
| 9/11/16 | Bundesliga | 11:30 AM | Mainz | Hoffenheim | Fox Sports 1; 42,000 | — | 42,000 |
| 9/11/16 | La Liga | 12:15 PM | Granada | Eibar | — | beIN Español; 34,000 | 34,000 |
| 9/11/16 | Liga MX | 1:00 PM | Pumas | Querétaro | Univision; 544,000 | Univision Deportes; 160,000 | 704,000 |
| 9/11/16 | La Liga | 2:30 PM | Deportivo | Athletic | — | beIN Español; 35,000 | 35,000 |
| 9/11/16 | Liga MX | 7:00 PM | Puebla | Toluca | — | Univision Deportes; 305,000 | 305,000 |
Major League Soccer averages:
| Overall | ESPN | ESPN2 | ESPND | FOX | FS1 | FOXD | Univision | UniMás | UDN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 281,869 | 312,391 | 201,500 | 46,000 | 498,000 | 165,273 | 35,615 | 827,000 | 167,409 | 68,905 |
Other league averages:
| League | Average |
|---|---|
| Liga MX | 654,595 |
| Premier League | 452,095 |
| La Liga | 138,476 |
| Bundesliga | 76,300 |
| NWSL | 68,000 |
| Serie A | 32,200 |
| Eredivisie | 27,000 |
| Championship | 16,375 |
| Ligue 1 | 11,667 |
| NASL | 6,652 |
HT: SportsTVRatings.
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