Super Bowl vs World Cup, Viewership & Value

There isn't a great deal of evidence to suggest the superbowl is anything other than a niche event outside north america. The world cup final, on the other hand, is a big deal around the world, even if not in every country.

 

I'm sure that might be true, I just was wondering about the numbers. But according to this article by the Independent, it would seem that it's probably just an exercise in PR: Why Fifa`s claim of one billion TV viewers was a quarter right.

Perhaps it would be better to compare the Super Bowl to the Champions League Final and the World Cup to the Olympics.

I even saw one article that said while the World Cup or Olympics get more viewers, the Brand Value extracted from the Super Bowl is much higher: The World`s Most Valuable Sporting Event Brands - Forbes.com

I don't even know if they were talking worldwide figures or just the US - I would think worldwide, but who knows.

 

I'm sorry, but this Forbes list must be a joke.

3 FIFA World Cup 103$m

4 NASCAR Daytona 500 91$m

They value the World Cup roughly the same as a single NASCAR race?


Edit:
Ok, now I get it. They are talking about "revenue per event day" which is rather ridiculous and which heavily favors single-day sporting events of course. Also calculating like this, the per day average revenue of the World Cup is tipped towards the lesser watched many group stage days.

Taking the Forbes numbers, the total revenue of the listed events looks more like this:

1. World Cup $3.1 bn (103 x 31days)
2. Summer Olympics $2.8 bn (176 x 16 days)

..Super Bowl $0.4 bn (379 x 1 day)

 

Like I said, the NFL quoted over a billion. But that only related to the number of people who COULD watch. Superbowl comes in at 97,000,000 worldwide.

The WC final has been reported between 500,000,000 to a billion.

 

and per the link I provided 2-3 posts up, that number was inflated too - there's no real way to know. It's just an exercise in PR spin

 

1 billion figure for the superbowl was the total population of all the countries in which the Superbowl was broadcast live in, regardless of how many people could've watched it if they'd choosen to. I imagine for the World Cup using those figures you'd get close to the total popualtion of the world.

I believe the UK is pretty much the biggest market for the nFl outside North America and I know a number of people who are into the NFL (though all but one are soccer fans first, the one who isn't is actually a referee who officated at the last Brit Bowl and has refereed at college level in the US). Still even the biggest NFL star probably wouldn't be recognized walking in the street in the UK.

IIRC the 200-300 million figure for the World Cup were for the number of people who watched it start to finish. The figure for people who watched at least some of it is close to 1 billion. All estimates of course

 

i live in a town of 90,000 thousand people, out of 12 close friends all of them watched the 06 WC final and none watched the super bowl 2009 and couldnt name 3 NFL teams

I heard that NFL was popular in Monterrey, some parts of northern Mexico and the Capital city but NFL would rank 8 in mexico's favourite sports

Football ( Mexican first division, La Liga, champions league, Premier League, in that order)
Boxing
Bulls
Charreria
Pro Wrestling
Baseball (Mexican Pacific League, MLB, Mexican Baseball League)
Basketball (NBA, Mexican League)
American Football (NFL, Onefa)

football, boxing, charreria are national sports and the other sports are mainly regional sports

 

I think Super Bowl is overrated.
Ok, there is a lot of people watching it in North America... but in the rest of the planet none notice it. Comparted to WC is nothing.
Just take South America as a simple example. South Americans love soccer, You can be sure that a really big % of the SA population is going to be watching the WC final match... maybe something like 90%?
And ask anyone there if they know when is the SUper Bowl going to be played... they will ask Super Bowl? what´s that? a superhero? lol

 

The Super Bowl is by far the biggest single television in the world's largest and (one of the) wealthiest television markets. It's also the rare (only?) television event where many people actually turn in to watch advertisements.

The Super Bowl has next-to-no footprint outside of the US, but it's hardly overrated by the people who count (advertisers).

 

Thats why they said its overrated.

 

I think it gets close to a billion only by picking Latin America and Europe alone. Including Asia, Africa and North America, I think it gets over 1.5 billion... maybe more.

 

The viewership of the final varies depending on the match up, if its a big media team like England(biggest national team in the English-Speaking world) going up against the worlds favorite team Brazil, expect 2 billion viewers or more.

 

WC matches are always exiting no matter the team but yeah a england-brazil final would draw a lot of viewers

 

how many of those people own a tv? Every household in usa has their tv on the suprbowl

 

Really? Then why is it most of the people who know how to count such stuff say only 95,000,000 actually watched it? Having it available on TV does not mean people watch it. Like when the NFL boasted about a billion homes...

It was available to a billion homes...

But hardly anyone watched it.

 

yea ur right, hardly anyone watched it

 

lol i love that american attitude! there is a world outside the US

nothing can be watched by 100% of any country's population i have family there in your country and they dont watch it so thats at least 5 people

being so generous even if 70% of the USA's population watches the superbowl thats about 210~ million people plus 4 million in Canada, 2 million in mexico, 3 million caribbean,central and south america, 10 million in Europe, 2 million in Asia, 1 million Africa, and 1 million in Australia-New zealand and all the pacific islands, plus 2 million from outer space

thats about 235 million people in the world and universe

now the world cup final. 4% of the USA+ canada population 18 million, Mexico Central, South america plus caribbean 92 million (only about 15% of the whole population 'cause not all the people have a tvs at home) 25% of Europe's pop. 183 million, Africa 5% 50 million, 5% of asia pop. 193 million, Australia New zealand and Pacific Islands 2 million

and the minumim number of viewers is about 538 million people for the world cup

so the supermagic bowl doesnt even come close to the WC final, its a good show from what ive heard but it is just not a global event

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...owl-TV-viewing-figures-down-on-last-year.html

Last years numbers.

http://www.bloginitiative.com/blog_initiative/2007/03/fifa_world_cup_.html

Numbers from 2006. Last time we had a Superbowl and World Cup at the same time.

Interestingly, viewing figures for the Superbowl put it at under 1 third the population of the US. Amazing numbers for something that is supposed to be an even that stops the country...

 

there is a world outside the U.S? i need to check it out.

I guess sarcasm doesn't translate well over the interweb.

Every household? Of course not. Just dramatizing my point. I am a soccer fan first and foremost.

but we are talking viewership and value. 100 million watching is pretty impressive for one country (yea yea, i know other countries watch too) compared to a global population watching the World Cup. And i have no official stats (don't like to take my facts from blogs/forums), but a sporting event that has such a short season (around 20 weeks), is yearly, and is highly commerical, still draws 100 million, that is pretty impressive!

On a side note, i think both the World Cup and the Superbowl will break records these coming months

 

If it was 100 million in the UK, that would be impressive! However, seeing as how the US has a population of over 300 million, that puts the viewership at one third the population. Less impressive for something the NFL sells as what is basically the be-all and end-all of sports in the US.

 

Your right, but remember its what the NFL sells, not the american people. Baseball prob be at the top of most American's lists.

interesting article i found on how FIFA inflates numbers by guesswork http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...on-tv-viewers-was-a-quarter-right-438302.html

 

You know, this kind of strawman argument isn't going to get you too far. "be-all and end-all of sport in the US"?

You know, I can easily play this game:

"However, seeing as how the world had a population of 6.5 billion in 2006, that put the World Cup final of 600M at <10% of the world populuation. That's pitiful considering that soccer is the world's game and many people here in BigSoccer sell it as the be-all and end-all of sports on the globe".

See, hype up the event that you argue AGAINST as the ultimate event for the whole population, then anything less than 100% would be a disappointment. For a WC Final that drew < 10%? a piece of cake...

Using this line of reasoning, soccer is much less popular in the world than gridiron in the US...

 

To put things in real perspective:
Compare the number of people watching the Super Bowl against the number of people watching the World Cup Draw or a "supermatch" vs a number of geriatics fiddling with ping pong balls.
That should humble some people, I think.

 

But if we want to really labour this point, the argument then opens up because you have to ask how many people in the world can we count that are able to watch the world cup? Lets not forget, there are hundreds of millions that live on less than you or I make in 1 hour, for several days. Do we count them as having easy access to a TV?

I didnt say that the Superbowl was the be all and end all. Just that thats how it is sold. I am fully aware that there is of course the World Series which attracts large viewer numbers, then you also have viewers for the finals of the NHL and NBA. There is a lot of competition in the US for viewers for the NFL.

 

You have no excuse. As long as they are part of the world's population, your argument is cooked.

Well, I didn't say that the World Cup final was the be all and end all. Just that thats how it is sold.

"who sold it?" you ask?

"then who sold that the NFL is the be-all and end-all in the US?", my response.

See how it is to fabricate a strawman argument?