Univision on Sunday logged the highest viewership ever for a sporting event in U.S. Spanish-language broadcast history. More than 5.4 million people tuned in to see Mexico beat Iran, 3-1, according to data released Monday by Nielsen Media Research. That's higher than previous years' World Cup finals among the soccer-obsessed Spanish-language audience.

ABC's coverage of the same game scored a 2.7 overnight household rating, up 42 percent from the 2002 Sunday match between England and Sweden, which rated a 1.9, Nielsen said.

Another ABC-televised game, England vs. Paraguay on Saturday morning, was up 93 percent compared with the first World Cup match the network carried in 2002. This year was a 2.7 rating, nearly double the 1.4 for Ireland vs. Cameroon four years ago.

Univision's coverage of eight games has averaged 2.6 million viewers, up 1.7 million from the same point in 2002. It also has tripled the number of viewers aged 18 to 49, the audience group most prized by advertisers, and has seen greater multiples in younger demographics.

The tournament, which culminates July 9, also is drawing record numbers of fans in Europe, with a TV, broadband and mobile audience running into the hundreds of millions.

For the first time, some mobile phone users with 3G handsets in Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain can watch matches and highlights on their cell phones. Mobile operators, however, have thus far proved coy about numbers.

British Vodafone Group's logo.[filephoto]

In host nation Germany, 20.1 million viewers tuned in to public broadcaster ZDF to watch the home team wallop Costa Rica, 4-2. The rating represents a 75.7 percent share and does not include the thousands who watched the game in pubs and at outdoor screenings around the country.

In Britain, summer fairs, school fetes and shopping malls were virtually deserted as the nation took advantage of a summer heat wave to fire up the barbecue, get some beers and invite the neighbors over to watch the Saturday afternoon match against Paraguay.

All told, eight of 10 available viewers were tuned in to BBC1's coverage of England's opening game, which drew an audience of 12 million and gave the broadcaster a whopping 84 percent share from 2-4 p.m. The British numbers omit viewers watching in pubs or on big screens in such spots as East London's Canary Wharf and London's Hyde Park, where large outdoor crowds gathered.

Spanish broadcaster La Sexta, which paid a reported 90 million Euros (US$113.4 million) for the rights to the World Cup, decided to simulcast "general interest" matches with rival broadcaster and fellow newcomer Cuatro.

The opening match between Germany and Costa Rica saw Cuatro, which is easily available on free-to-air sets, capture 23.8 percent of the audience, with La Sexta snagging just 6.4 percent.

In France, TF1 reported 3.42 million viewers for the opening ceremony of the World Cup, an audience market share of 42.4 percent. For the Germany-Costa Rica game, the channel estimated viewership of 6.11 million, representing a 44.5 percent market share.

Official Italian viewership figures for the World Cup soccer tournament were unavailable at press time but anecdotal data suggests that interest has been strong.

According to the local media in Italy, bars are extending hours to coincide with programming for earlier games, and circulation of the country's major sports-related newspaper, Gazetta dello Sport, has been up a reported 10 percent since the tournament began Friday.