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Germany enjoys record 2014 TV sports audience in first game

Germany enjoys record 2014 TV sports audience in first game

Photo by Buda Mendes – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images

The 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil set more TV audience records on Day 5 of the competition, with 26.4 million viewers in Germany watching ARD’s live coverage of the German national team’s win over Portugal.

That was some 85 percent higher than the next most popular sports broadcast in Germany this year.

Portuguese broadcaster RTP1 enjoyed a 47 percent increase on the average audience for a Portugal group match at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, with 2.5 million people watching their live coverage – almost three quarters of the total market share.

Elsewhere, there was further evidence that the popularity of the FIFA World Cup and football is growing in the United States. ESPN’s coverage of the first match of the tournament between Brazil and Croatia attracted 4.0 million viewers in the United States, more than the combined audience for the opening fixtures of the 2006 and 2010 competitions.

(FIFA Press Release | Photo by Buda Mendes – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)