Advertisers spent almost US$100 million on US television commercials in and around the 2019 Fifa Women’s World Cup, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

That amount significantly exceeded expectations ahead of the soccer tournament held in France, with ad-tracker Kantar saying that US$96 million was brought in, smashing its US$43 million estimate.

The report notes that the initial projection did not account for ad revenue generated by Spanish-language networks, such as Telemundo, which made up 11 per cent of the US$96 million.

A Kantar spokesman told the WSJ that the rest of the discrepancy could partly be down to a rush for last-minute ad buys, with interest in the tournament spiking as the United States women’s national soccer team (USWNT) marched to their fourth title.

In comparison, the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia pulled in US$350 million in TV advertising in the US, according to Kantar, and averaged 2.3 million viewers in the country against the 992,000 for the women’s equivalent. It is worth noting though that Russia 2018 had 64 matches, compared to the 52 at France 2018, and had approximately double the commercial time.

The report adds that Fox Sports, which holds English-language rights to Fifa tournaments in the US, charged more for ads at this year’s Women’s World Cup than for the 2015 tournament in Canada, despite the significant time zone difference. However, strong viewership at the 2015 event meant advertisers saw the value in this year’s tournament and chose to stump up the money required to the pay-TV broadcaster.

According to research from analytics company SQAD, Fox earned US$506,665 on average for each 30-second advertising slot sold for its coverage of the USA’s 2-0 win over the Netherlands in the final.