Television coverage of the first round of group games for the 2014 Fifa World Cup broke viewing records in a number of markets, according to world football’s governing body.
The first round of games at the ongoing tournament ran from June 12-17, with Brazilian media group Globo recording its highest figures for a sports broadcast in 2014 as 42.9 million watched the host nation defeat Croatia 3-1 in the opening game.
Italy’s 2-1 victory over England on June 14 drew 14.2 million viewers for UK public-service broadcaster the BBC and 12.8 million viewers for Italian state broadcaster Rai, the highest audiences in both countries in 2014.
Japanese public-service broadcaster NHK secured 34.1 million viewers for its national team’s 2-1 defeat against the Ivory Coast on June 14, twice the size of the next biggest sports broadcast of 2014.
Public-service broadcaster ARD attracted the largest sports audience this year in Germany as the national team opened its World Cup campaign with a comprehensive 4-0 win over Portugal on June 16 – a match watched by 26.4 million viewers.
Elsewhere, US sports broadcaster ESPN gained a record figure for its coverage of World Cup games as 11.1 million watched the USA’s dramatic 2-1 win over Ghana on June 16.
Fifa has arrangements with more than 160 main media rights licensees for the 2014 World Cup. In total, Fifa has approximately 700 licensees across television, mobile, broadband and radio for the tournament.