700 million people watched Arsenal-Man U yesterday.

[fsquid]

Wow, how much does the Super Bowl get worldwide?

[pk500]

The estimated worldwide audience for the Super Bowl two years ago was 800 million.

Still, that's the mega, super-duper, titanic championship of the civilized world with weeks of hype, which makes the 700 million who curled up to watch a regular-season match between Man U and Arsenal even more impressive.

Take care,
PK

[RiverRat]

FOX estimates a potential 1 billion audience this year. But as PK said, a huge hype-machine goes with it. 700M for a regular season weekday match which, in all honesty, was not particularly consequential in terms of league position or European qualification, is more impressive in my opinion.

[TheMightyPuck]

I caught the first half at my local pub but needed to head back to work for half two. Man was I pissed I didn't stick around. With these kinds of numbers maybe Roman Abramovich will make a profit off Chelsea if he can bring the team near the international appeal of a ManU or, to a lesser extent, Arsenal.

[wco81]

If the broadcast these matches more widely, they would surely get a sizeable audience.

The problem is, if they regularly showed EPL games here, then the novelty will wear off except for the big games.

The channels and networks which would carry it here probably couldn't sell ad time at anywhere near NFL rates.

So it would be relegated to channels like Fox Sportsworld and PPV. Direct TV's EPL package a year or two ago was more than Sunday Ticket!

[davet010]

It's estimated that 200,000 in Manchester were watching it.

Of whom 199,500 were cheering Arsenal on.

The other 500 have come over from Dublin early for Saturday's MU home game against Birmingham.

[pk500]

The big difference between the Arsenal-Man U game and the Super Bowl is that a much larger majority of the Super Bowl audience comes from the U.S., further reinforcing soccer's claim to be the world's game.

If the Super Bowl gets 1 billion worldwide viewers, nearly 1/20th of that audience -- around 50 million -- comes from the U.S. There's no way 35 million watched Arsenal and Man U yesterday in the U.S. I'd be surprised if 1/1000th of the worldwide audience, or 700,000, watched it in the U.S.

A regular-season Man U-Arsenal game has more appeal for the globe outside of North America than the Super Bowl, I think.

Take care,
PK

[pk500]

It's estimated that 200,000 in Manchester were watching it.

Of whom 199,500 were cheering Arsenal on.

The other 500 have come over from Dublin early for Saturday's MU home game against Birmingham.

Dave:

In all seriousness, does the UK have a TV rating service like the Nielsen ratings here in the States? If so, any idea how many UK households were tuned in, and what percentage of overall TV households is that number?

I'm curious, as the Super Bowl gets a rating between 40-50 here in the U.S., which means that 40 to 50 percent of the American households with TV will tune into the game.

Take care,
PK

[cdastros]

Thanks to this board I have just recently started getting into soccer. From the few games that I have watched, the biggest thing that I noticed was no commercials until half time. I am so used to the big 3 American sports that it kind of feels weird to not have any stoppages during play. The lack of commercial time may be the reason American broadcast companies have not jumped on this sport as much as they should.

[Spooky]

There was a soccer game somewhere this week?

[davet010]

Every day, everywhere, there is a soccer game.

[fsquid]

Every day, everywhere, there is a soccer game.

and most of those days there is a dissapointing performance from city.

[pk500]

Every day, everywhere, there is a soccer game.

and most of those days there is a dissapointing performance from city.

Be nice to Dave: At least the dreadful performance today by his Man City was matched by that of its opponent, Newcastle. I didn't see the game, but every report I've read indicated this was a sh*t match between two teams whose quality is missing somewhere on the plane with Amelia Earhart.

The misery of this season for Newcastle grows and grows. When will Fat Fred wake up and show Souness the door? Not any time soon, I'm afraid, as Fred's ego won't allow him to admit he erred in hiring the inept Souness.

As Steven Cohen said last Friday night on "Fox Football Friday," Souness is yet another fine player who hasn't made the transition into being a fine manager. Or more to the point, Steven said: "What has Souness won as a manager? NOTHING."

Take care,
PK

[ScoopBrady]

There is no way to accurately say how many people watch any television broadcast. I don't put any stock into ratings numbers at all.

[K_Mosley]

I apologize for being one of the few around here that actually likes Man. United (next to only Fulham, in terms of EPL teams that I root for). However, after watching the likes Giggs, Rooney, and Keane in several matches, I can see why people hate them.

I don't get the hate for Ronaldo, as I think he's a wizard with the ball. Yeah, he flops a bit, and showboats a bit, but he is only 19. Do people hate him because he has the whole package?

However, I will admit I'm ignorant about the beautiful game (I know, it's obvious, based upon my comments above).

By the way, how is Carroll still in goal? Admittedly, I have a bias towards Howard, but his touch outside of the box was the second egregious error I've seen him make this season alone. Plus, he gave up that goal right between his legs. Help me, soccer experts, shouldn't he have been expected to make that save?

Kevin

[davet010]

and most of those days there is a dissapointing performance from city.

Squid - home game, midtable mediocrity..

45,000 on a pissing down Feb night, in the Prem.

Let me know how your next home game goes.