FIFA World Cup: Time zones and viewership in the u.s.
The FIFA Men’s and Women’s World Cup tournaments unite a divided world. Fans display team support worldwide; however, television airtime is the primary factor in evaluating viewership.
Data was obtained online via CNBC Nielsen documents. The documents provided statistics regarding yearly television ratings, viewership habits by gender, race and ethnicity, and average and total attendance for both men’s and women’s tournaments. Such raw data was obtained and later cleaned in Microsoft Excel. The formatted data was then converted into pivot charts. Not many specific functions were used, as the only task was to delete empty columns and rows. The analysis data were simple but difficult to acquire. Specific key Google terms were necessary, such as “World Cup viewership statistics and raw data.” The accuracy and suitability of the data are confirmed by professional representatives of United States Women’s Soccer, FOX Sports and NCAA Soccer, respectively Aaron Heifetz, Eric Esteban and Ben Robison.
There was an 11% decrease in U.S. viewership for the women’s World Cups between 2015 and 2019, which were held in Canada and France, respectively. This may seem surprising, given the U.S. National Women’s Team’s dominance and popularity. Heifetz, Director of Communications for the USWNT, says the difference in time zones is the central reason for this decrease. The broadcast time plays a big difference. Heifetz does not expect fans to watch live games in Australia and New Zealand at 3 a.m., thus FOX Sports has released the 2023 World Cup schedule which will include pre-recorded matches to accommodate U.S. primetime ratings. The bar chart below displays the viewership decline in 2019 due to the tournament being held in Europe in comparison with North America.
Viewership of all U.S. Women’s 2015 World Cup matches gradually increased. Domestic television ratings skyrocketed during the Final between the USA and Japan, which is not surprising, given that the game was played in Canada and the final match will inevitably attract the most viewers.
While the Women’s World Cup Final experienced a decrease in viewership, the Men’s World Cup Final saw an increase between 2018 and 2022. More than two million Americans watched the 2018 Final between France and Croatia, however nearly four million tuned into the 2022 Final between Argentina and France. The United States failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup held in Russia. Thus, time zones and lack of interest resulted in lower TV ratings in comparison with the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar. Although there is a significant time difference between Qatar and the United States, American viewership increased because its team qualified. Furthermore, the untraditional season of the 2022 World Cup, which took place in the fall/winter of that year, worked in FOX Sports’ favor.
Eric Esteban, Vice President of Media Relations at FOX Sports, says the station’s public relations department utilized a World Cup cross-promotional tool during the ongoing World Series and the thick of the NFL and college football seasons. Additionally, social media was a key factor. Esteban says that when he was in Qatar covering the World Cup, “we had reporters who covered the tournament on FOX Soccer, our main social channel with over 1.4 million viewers on Twitter.” This platform will also be used for the upcoming women’s tournament in 2023. It is difficult to project viewership statistics, hence the significant time difference, however, social media engages modern viewers and provides the option of pre-recorded matches.
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