NEW YORK (AP) — The World Cup semifinals each were seen by an average of more than 12 million viewers in the United States on ESPN and Spanish-language Univision.
ESPN said Germany’s 7-1 rout over host Brazil on Tuesday averaged 6,643,000 viewers and Argentina’s penalty-kicks win over the Netherlands the following day averaged 6,823,000.
The games, which both kicked off at 4 p.m. EDT, are the two highest-rated World Cup semifinals on any U.S. network, ESPN said Thursday.
Univision said its coverage of Brazil-Germany averaged 5,804,000 and Netherlands-Argentina 5,444,000, also its most-viewed semifinals.
ESPN’s telecasts have averaged 4,289,000 through 62 games, up 43 percent from 2010’s 2,989,000 and 108 percent from 2006’s 2.06 million.
Univision said its average of 3,345,000 is up 38 percent from 2010.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
