TV Report: NWSL viewers up for final, down for season

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Oct 7, 2015

The NWSL final won by FC Kansas City over regular-season champion Seattle averaged 167,000 viewers, the largest audience of the year for the women's league on Fox Sports 1, which aired six regular-season and playoff games. The viewership for the final was up 7 percent compared to that for the 2014 final on ESPN2. But the six games averaged 89,500 viewers on FS1, down 38 percent from 2014 for six games on ESPN2.

The viewership for the final was more than two times the combined viewership for the semifinals that aired on Sept. 13.

The highest audiences for the NWSL are the first two regular-season games that aired in 2014: 190,000 for Portland-Houston and 177,000 for Portland-Boston.

2015 NWSL TV Viewers, Fox Sports 1:
AVG. MATCH (DATE)
167,000 FC Kansas City-Seattle (Final, Oct. 1)
136,000 Houston-Seattle (Aug. 21)
91,000 Portland-Chicago (Aug. 9)
65,000 Portland-Washington (Aug. 30)
48,000 Seattle-Washington (Semifinals, Sept. 14)
28,000 Chicago-FC Kansas City (Semifinals, Sept. 14)
(h/t: sportstvratings.com)