Champions League final averages 3.65 million viewers in US

NEW YORK (AP) — The Champions League final on Saturday averaged a combined 3.65 million viewers on English- and Spanish-language television, tying for the second-largest audience for the game since 2011.

Nielsen ratings show Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Manchester City averaged 2.10 million on CBS and 1.55 million on Univision. The 2015 final between Barcelona and Juventus on Fox and Deportes also averaged 3.65 million.

The highest mark remains the 2011 match between Barcelona and Manchester United on Fox and Fox Deportes (4.15 million).

CBS's audience — which was the third-largest since 2010 — also marked a 39% increase over 2019, when the Liverpool-Tottenham match on TNT averaged 1.5 million. That was also the last time the final took place in its usual late May spot.

CBS won the rights to UEFA’s Champions and Europa leagues in November 2019 but was not supposed to start televising the competitions until this August. But Turner opted out of its deal last July and CBS picked up the end of the 2020 tournament, which was delayed due to the coronavirus, as well as this season’s full competitions.

Last year’s final between Bayern Munich and PSG was on CBS Sports Network, but audience figures are not available since Nielsen does not publicly track it. It did have 2.05 million viewers on Univision, making it the most-watched Champions League Spanish-language broadcast.

It is also the fourth time the game has averaged at least 2 million fans on a broadcast network. The 2011 final between Barcelona and Manchester United on Fox still had the biggest audience (2.6 million), followed by Barcelona-Juventus in 2015 (2.2 million) and Real Madrid-Liverpool in 2018 (2.01 million). Fox carried the Champions League from 2010-18.

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