Football (And More Football) Dominated 2018 Spanish Viewing
January 9, 2019
Spain lost to Russia on penalties in the FIFA World Cup last summer but the dramatic shoot-out scored the biggest audience of 2018 in the country for tournament broadcaster Telecinco.
The shoot-out drew 14.829 million viewers and an audience share of 81.1% after 13.835 million remained glued to extra time. The 90-minute match pulled 12.790 million with a share of 72.4%.
Football accounted for all of the top 50 audiences in Spain last year except for the Eurovision Song Contest (Spain came 23rd).
Spain’s World Cup matches against Morocco (11.560 mil.), Iran (11.481 mil.) and Portugal (10.402 mil.) on Telecinco ranked next in the list of the biggest audiences of the year.
Antena 3 also scored with football as Real Madrid’s victory over Liverpool in the Champions League final pulled the biggest audience apart from the national team during Russia 2018.
Real’s win drew 9.291 million viewers with a 55.3% share, followed in the hit parade by the eventual champions’ earlier games versus Bayern Munich (8.749 mil.) and PSG (8.564 mil.).
Rounding out the annual top 10 was the extra time of England versus Croatia in the World Cup on Telecinco with 8.492 million viewers watching the Croatians prevail.
That actually outscored the French victory over Croatia in the World Cup final with 8.247 million.
England’s penalty shoot-out win over Colombia also beat the final.
