Soccer’s domination of global TV viewing is now complete

Last year marked a turning point in TV sports viewing trends. Until now, even-numbered years have been dominated by the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championships, and also the IOC Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Odd-numbered years, lacking these quadrennial behemoths, have instead featured American Football at the top of the global viewing league table. No longer.

For the first time, the NFL Super Bowl has been overtaken by the UEFA Champions League Final as the world's most watched sporting event of the year. That is not because the NFL Super Bowl is falling in popularity. Far from it. Indeed it achieved record TV audience figures in 2009, both in the US and globally. However, the UEFA Champions League's audience figures are growing even faster.

Given previous years' reports highlighting the strength of the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championships, futures sport + entertainment predicts that the finals of these major soccer tournaments will be the number one ranked global TV viewing event every year for at least the next decade. The only event that is likely to challenge soccer's dominance is the Opening Ceremony of the IOC Summer Olympics. However, with the 2012 Games being held in London, and 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, the very large time zone differences with China and the rest of Asia-Pacific are likely to mitigate against a serious challenge to soccer's number one ranking. The most likely competition would instead come if the IOC were to award the 2020 Games to an Asian country, following on from the huge audiences delivered in Beijing in 2008.

Beyond the UEFA Champions League Final and the NFL Super Bowl at the top of the global league table, Formula One takes the bronze medal on the winner's podium, as it typically does in an odd-numbered year. However, in a change from the norm, the Brazilian Grand Prix was not the most watched Formula One race of 2009. That honour instead fell to Bahrain.


This is the introductory story of the latest ViewerTrack report from futures sport + entertainment. We have just published our seventh annual report on the world’s most watched TV sporting events.


For a full copy, please send an e-mail to:

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