​FS1 earned a rare month-long victory over ESPN in primetime viewership during the month of June thanks to the strength of this year’s World Cup audience.Fox Sports 1 averaged 1.31 million viewers in primetime throughout the month of June, good for the second most-watched cable network of the month behind only sister channel Fox News which averaged 2.26 million viewers in primetime. ESPN finished in third place, averaging 1.08 million viewers for the month in primetime.In total, FS1 aired 32 World Cup matches in the month of June, though not all of those matches aired in primetime. Of those 32 matches, just 15 overlapped with the primetime hours, generally measured as between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET. Several also aired simultaneously to matches on Fox during the final day of group play, with FS1 typically getting the less desirable matchup.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNevertheless, all FS1’s World Cup programming seemed to lift most of the network’s other programming. Per Sports Business Journal, the week of June 15 was the most-watched week in FS1 history by total-day audience. The network averaged 885,000 viewers for the week, 90% better than ESPN’s total-day audience in the same week. As a company, Fox swept the three major ratings categories — broadcast, cable, and news — for both the week of June 15 and June 22.A World Cup is one of the rare sporting events that commands both a high level of interest and has the volume of inventory to genuinely lift a cable network like FS1 despite the secular decline of the medium over many years. While streamers and tech companies seem to be the favorites to land the tournament come 2030, there’s still clear value to be derived from legacy broadcasters airing the World Cup. Whether that value can justify the expected doubling or tripling of media rights fees for the next tournament, however, remains to be seen.The post FS1 earns rare month-long win over ESPN on back of World Cup viewership appeared first on Awful Announcing.