Record 25.4 million watch Women's World Cup final on U.S. TV

[July 07, 2015] (Reuters) - A record 25.4 million TV viewers in the United States watched the United States beat Japan 5-2 in the final of the FIFA Women's World Cup, a new high for any soccer match televised in the country, according to Nielsen ratings data on Monday.

Sunday's contest in Vancouver, Canada, was broadcast live by Fox Sports and was by far the most-watched TV broadcast of the night, Nielsen figures showed.

The number of viewers shattered the average 18.2 million audience that tuned in for the men's USA v. Portugal match on cable channel ESPN in the early rounds of the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.

Sunday's audience also crushed the 13.5 million who watched the American women take on, and lose against, Japan in the 2011 World Cup final.

The two-hour-long telecast handily beat entertainment shows such as "Big Brother" on rival CBS and "Celebrity Family Feud" on ABC.

Fox's post-match live discussion drew a whopping 14.6 million people, according to Nielsen.

Fox is a unit of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, ABC is a unit of the Walt Disney Co and CBS is a unit of CBS Corp.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Grant McCool)
 

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