ZURICH: The FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015™ is attracting more television viewers in key markets than in 2011, with the first round of group stage matches drawing impressive audiences in North America, Europe and Asia.

A record number of Canadians tuned in to watch the host nation beat China in the opening match, with 1.8 million viewers watching on CTV, TSN and RDS. That was the biggest television audience in Canada for any FIFA Women’s World Cup match on record.

In China, 2.3 million people enjoyed CCTV5’s coverage of the match, well above the highest live group stage audience from 2011 of 1.3 million.

US broadcaster Fox Sports 1 attracted 3.3 million viewers to the game between the United States and Australia, more than three times higher than Team USA’s first group stage match in 2011.

Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV reached 4.2 million people during Japan’s match against Switzerland, more than the number of viewers that watched Japan’s semi-final match against Sweden in 2011.

England’s opener against France drew 1.5 million viewers to BBC2, a bigger audience than for any group stage match in 2011. A similar number of viewers watched the match in France on W9.

In the Netherlands, Ned 1’s round up of the first day attracted 1.0 million viewers – higher than any figures generated in 2011.