People watch as the Spanish national team parades through Madrid's Alcala street on Monday, July 12, 2010. Spain won the World Cup after defeating the Netherlands 1- 0 on Sunday.
NEW YORK: World Cup television viewership rose 41 percent over four years ago for English-language telecasts in the United States, with Spain's 1-0 overtime victory over the Netherlands setting a record.
Sunday's game in Johannesburg, which gave the Spanish their first World Cup title, was seen by 15,545,000 viewers on ABC, according to fast national ratings. The previous high was 14,863,000 viewers for the United States' 2-1 overtime loss to Ghana in the second round on June 26.
An additional 8.8 million viewers watched Spanish-language coverage Sunday on Univision, according to Nielsen Media Research, bringing the total to 24.3 million.
