Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 10y

World Cup final sets viewing record

A record 34.65 million Germans watched Sunday's World Cup triumph -- the highest-ever viewing figures for German television.

As the country came to a virtual standstill with Joachim Low's side battling for a fourth world title, ARD TV took the lion's share of the huge viewing figures for the 1-0 win over Argentina with 86.3 percent.

The overall figure beat the previous highest-ever German total, set as 32.57 million people tuned in to the 7-1 thrashing of hosts Brazil in the semifinals.

And several million more also followed the World Cup final at public screenings in parks, streets, pubs and bars throughout the nation.

The 2014 World Cup had already been an outstanding success for broadcasters ARD and ZDF. Germany's games averaged 28.93 million viewers, translating into a marketing share of 84 percent, meedia.de reported.

On Monday, German TV stations changed their schedules as most aired extra programmes looking back at the World Cup triumph.

On Tuesday, some 500,000 people are expected to welcome Die Nationalmannschaft back home to Germany.

The players will parade the World Cup trophy trough Berlin, before joining the big party at the Fanmeile in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Meanwhile, U.S. viewers made the World Cup final the most-watched football match in American history.

Associated Press quoted the Nielsen company as saying that 17.3 million people had tuned into the game on ABC, with a further 9.2 million watching on the Spanish-language Univision network.

The figure eclipses the 24.7 million who watched the U.S.-Portugal match earlier in the tournament, while the same number of Americans tuned into the 2010 World Cup final.

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