A thrilling UEFA Champions League Final on Saturday earned CBS the largest audience for a club soccer match in U.S. English-language television history.
Paris Saint-Germain’s win over Arsenal averaged 3.09 million viewers on CBS, according to the network’s announcement on Tuesday. Saturday’s match, a 5-0 walloping by PSG over Italian side Inter Milan, increased last year’s audience by 51%. Viewership peaked at 3.93 million viewers during the quarter-hour coinciding with penalty kicks.
The match capped off a successful season for Champions League on CBS. Per the network, viewership ticked up by 13% year-over-year, with matches on CBS averaging 1.71 million viewers, up 39%.
Of course, as with any viewership figures of late, it is important to note that this is the first Champions League Final to be measured using Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel standard, which has generally increased viewership for live sports compared to prior years. That said, Saturday’s audience well outpaced anything that could solely be attributed to the Nielsen changes.
The viewership record coincides with a change in the event’s start time. Traditionally, the Champions League Final has been contested at night in Europe, but UEFA decided to move kickoff up by three hours this year. For viewers on the East Coast of the United States, that meant a 12 p.m. ET start rather than 3 p.m. ET. Given the early hour on the West Coast, the traditional start time may’ve resulted in an even larger audience. However, UEFA decided to try to reach a broader audience worldwide.
Saturday’s match also comes in the lead-up to a World Cup being hosted in North America, which could’ve put more eyeballs on the sport as American viewers prepare to host the world’s biggest sporting event.
Of course, the neck-and-neck nature of the match, which ended in penalty kicks, certainly contributed to a larger-than-usual audience as well.
Whatever the case, CBS has to be pleased with the record-setting effort. The numbers should bode well for Fox, too, as the network prepares to broadcast 104 World Cup matches over the next month and change.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.