Americans' World Cup-ending loss seen by 16.5M on US TV

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The United States' tournament-ending 3-1 loss to the Netherlands at the World Cup was seen by 16.5 million on U.S. English- and Spanish-language television and digital streams, according to figures released by Fox and Telemundo.

Fox said its coverage of the round of 16 match, which started at 10 a.m. EST on Saturday, was viewed by an average of 12.9 million. That included almost 600,000 on its digital streaming services.

Telemundo said its Spanish-language coverage was seen by 3.58 million, including 1.26 million for its digital streams on Telemundo and Peacock.

Viewers were down from the previous two U.S. round of 16 matches, according to figures provided by Nielsen. The 2-1 extra-time loss to Belgium in 2014, which began at 5 p.m. EDT on a Tuesday, was seen by 18.1 million on ESPN and Univision. The 1-0 extra-time loss to Ghana in 2010, which kicked off at 2:30 p.m. EDT on a Saturday, was viewed by 17.9 million on ABC and Univision.

The top U.S. markets for the viewership of the United States-Netherlands match were Cincinnati, with a 10.4 rating and 33 share; Washington, D.C. (9.9/33), Kansas City (9.9/33) and Austin, Texas (9.8/35). The rating is the percentage of television households in a market tuned to a telecast, and the share is the percentage among households with TVs on at the time.

Fox said data from Nielsen on the West Coast markets, which were impacted by the 7 a.m. PST start time, will not be available until later this week.

Telemundo and Peacock are divisions of NBCUniversal, owned by Comcast Corp.

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