Skip to main content

France draws highest TV ratings since 2006 final

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — France’s 5-2 victory over Switzerland drew the biggest World Cup television audience in the country since the Zinedine Zidane era.

FIFA says state broadcaster TF1 had 16.7 million viewers for Friday’s match, which kicked off at 9 p.m. French time.

It was the highest football audience since around 22 million French viewers watched the 2006 final against Italy. Zidane was sent off in his final match before retiring and France lost a penalty shootout.

FIFA has reported high ratings across the world.

In Japan, 34.1 million watched NHK’s broadcast of a 2-1 loss to Ivory Coast in the national team’s first match last weekend.

Germany’s ARD had 24.6 million viewers watching Monday’s 4-0 rout of Portugal.

In Britain, 17.9 million saw England’s 2-1 loss against Uruguay on Thursday.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Hail to the chief: Take our presidential trivia quiz

EDITOR'S NOTE: WTOP first brought you this quiz in 2019. Presidents Day is coming. How well do you know the less-important facts about the nation's leaders? Take WTOP's quiz — with any luck, it won't take you all Presidents Day to finish it.
Read Next Story