US Cable Soccer Viewership, Dec 8-14

Liga MX and the Premier league own the cable viewership list this week. MLS finished up its season over on traditional broadcast TV with a Cup Final of 1.07m viewers. Over on NBC (same day, just earlier), the EPL matchup between Manchester City and Manchester United pulled in 973k.

Meanwhile, the clubhouse leader was the Liga MX final series between Leon and Pumas UNAM. It averaged 2.43 million viewers on Univision.

MLS will be happy with the way it finished the Playoffs and Cup Final. Two games on traditional TV with close to a million viewers mark a couple highs for them. I think it has to do with the efficiency with which the playoffs were played due to Covid-19. 

Usually, MLS gets lost in the trees a bit trying to finish the season. It takes a couple months and there can be a couple weeks between rounds due to international break and the league insists on playing home/home two-game ties in order to pull an extra gate.

Single elimination, with short spells between games, worked for MLS. It'll be interesting if they do something similar next year or stick with the lazy format they usually use.

US Cable Soccer programs, Dec 8-14
Viewers (000)	Event/Game	Network	Date
809	LIGA MX PT SUN: LEON VS. PUMAS UNAM	TUDN	13-Dec-20
514	PREMIER LEAGUE L: LIVERPOOL/FULHAM	NBCSN	13-Dec-20
497	LIGA MX THU: FINAL: UNAM VS. LEON	TUDN	10-Dec-20
388	UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: BARCA VS. JUVE	TUDN	8-Dec-20
330	PREMIER LEAGUE L: BURNLEY/ARSENAL	NBCSN	13-Dec-20
327	PREMIER LEAGUE L: TOTTENHAM/PALACE	NBCSN	13-Dec-20
248	FUTBOL CENTRAL PT SUN	TUDN	13-Dec-20
246	PREMIER LG LIVE STUDIO	NBCSN	13-Dec-20
186	UEFA CHAMP LEAGUE: REAL MADVS. BORUSSIA	TUDN	9-Dec-20
174	PREMIER LEAGUE L: WEST HAM/LEEDS	NBCSN	11-Dec-20
161	FUTBOL CENTRAL THU	TUDN	10-Dec-20
155	PREMIER LEAGUE GOAL ZONE	NBCSN	13-Dec-20
135	LINEA DE CUATRO L	TUDN	13-Dec-20
127	PREMIER LEAGUE L: SHEFFIELD/SOUTHAMPTON	NBCSN	13-Dec-20
118	LIGA MX FEMENIL: TIGRES UANL / MONTERREY	TUDN	14-Dec-20
62	LINEA DE CUATRO	TUDN	8-Dec-20

Just a quick note on why I only track cable - It's the proverbial apples to apples for the most part. "Traditional TV" is just what it means. ABC, CBS, FOX over-the-air channels. Viewership on those stations is much higher due to them being in many (many) more homes. Differences in subscribers do exist in cable land (TUDN has about half the subscribers of ESPN) but for the most part, it's a place where fans seek out what they want to watch.