2018 MLS season: TV audience up for final, down for the regular season and play-offs before final

The Audi MLS Cup 2018, Atlanta United FC - Portland Timbers (2-0), played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (74,000 seats) in Atlanta (Georgia, USA), drew an average TV audience of 1.563 million viewers, with a peak audience of 2.07 million late in the game, on the free-TV English-language channel Fox, on 08/12/2018.

This is the best TV audience recorded in the United States by an English language broadcaster for an MLS Cup final since the 1997 edition, DC United - Colorado Rapids (2-1), broadcast on the free-TV channel ABC (2.2 millions of viewers on average). The 2018 audience is up by 10% compared to the last final broadcast on Fox in 2016. Since 2015, the final is broadcast alternately on Fox or ESPN, the two groups who share the English-language TV rights over the 2015-2022 cycle (see below).

While the TV audience for the MLS Cup final is up, the TV audiences of the regular season and 2018 play-offs are down. For example, the 2018 Eastern and Western Conference final play-offs were 7% and 10% lower than those of 2017, respectively.

• The 2015-2022 TB rights to MLS Major League…