More than 10 million South African TV viewers watched World Cup opening match

Opening match draws 10 million SAfrican viewers

JOHANNESBURG — More than 10 million television viewers in South Africa watched the host play Mexico to open the World Cup.

FIFA says 87 percent of people watching television at home in South Africa last Friday saw SABC1 and SuperSport 3 broadcasts of the 1-1 draw.

That’s nearly 3 million more than South Africa’s highest-rated sports broadcast last year, when the host team played Brazil in the Confederations Cup.

FIFA says an average of almost one in five Mexicans with televisions on at home watched last Friday.

In the United States, Spanish-language channel Univision averaged 5.4 million viewers — double its audience for Germany opening the 2006 World Cup against Costa Rica.