Fox Sports is hoping to ride some serious ratings momentum coming out of this past weekend’s World Cup quarterfinal matches into the international soccer tournament’s version of the Final Four set to begin today.

After struggling from a ratings perspective in the early rounds without the USA team, Fox Sports has scored some big ratings numbers in the later rounds. This past Saturday the network drew a whopping 6.3 million viewers for the Croatia-Russia match quarterfinal match (6.6 million including streaming viewers), making it the most watched World Cup quarterfinal in English or Spanish language since at least 1990, according to Fox.

England’s defeat of Sweden, also on Saturday, drew 5 million viewers across the network and digital streaming platforms, according to Fox.

“The first week of the tournament, which is when we were most impacted by the time difference between Russia and the U.S., was challenging, but since then we have exceeded our own expectations,” said Fox Sports executive vice president of research and content strategy Michael Mulvihill. “The overall audience figures have been strong, we’re seeing strong contributions from both streaming and out-of-home television, and the World Cup is delivering the most affluent audience in sports to our advertisers."

While the numbers are still down from the previous World Cup telecast – Fox and FS1’s 2.5 million viewers through the World Cup Russia quarterfinals is down 18% from the 2014 Brazil World Cup tournament, excluding team USA matches -- Fox Sports has drawn large pockets of viewers for several big games throughout the tournament, according to network executives.

Even with the elimination of marquee team draws like Germany, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, Mulvihill said Fox is bullish about its ratings prospects heading into the final rounds of a very unpredictable, action-packed and suspenseful World Cup tournament. France and Belgium square off today, with Croatia and England battling tomorrow. The winners will play Sunday in the World Cup final.

“I think it’s been a bit surprising that the World Cup has not been very reliant on recognizable stars or traditional powers,” said Mulvihill. “In the end it hasn’t mattered much that Germany failed to get out of the group, or that both Messi and Ronaldo lost in the round of 16. The two most-watched games have been Croatia-Russia and Croatia-Denmark; who would have predicted that? I think we’re finding that stars don’t make the World Cup, the World Cup makes stars.”

Telemundo has also pulled in some record-setting numbers for its Spanish-language coverage of the World Cup. Through 60 matches, Telemundo Deportes’ 2018 World Cup presentation has reached 34.7 million TV viewers. Overall, Telemundo has reached nearly 55% of the U.S. Hispanic population.

Telemundo’s TV coverage has also set records for the network’s most-watched daytime windows 67% of the time on their respective days of the week (14 of 21 match days), according to the network.

Pictured, top: Luka Modric of Croatia and Daler Kuziaev of Russia compete for the ball during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Quarter Final match between Russia and Croatia at Fisht Stadium on July 7, 2018 in Sochi, Russia. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Netflix has launched in Belgium and Luxembourg, finishing a major European expansion this week that saw the over-the-top service also launch in France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The expansion is important for U.S. producers and studios because OTT providers have become a major source of revenue in international markets and the launch of Netflix services in major European territories will head up competition for those rights, which generally translates into higher prices.

Netflix reported that the expansion means it will be able to market its services to more than 63 million broadband homes in those six countries.

"We've received a very warm welcome throughout Europe," said Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and chief executive officer in a statement. "Consumers love choice - in series and films and in when and where they watch. We are delighted people are embracing Netflix in our newest territories and, particularly, the incredible viewer enthusiasm for our original series."

Netflix has localized the service with subtitles and dubbing on foreign language movies and TV shows and local content.

The ratings juggernaut that is the ongoing 2014 FIFA World Cup scored another coup for ESPN, with the USA-Belgium Round of 16 match July 1 averaging nearly 16.5 million viewers and a 9.8 household rating, making it the second-most-watched men's soccer match ever in the United States.

The overtime match was characterized by a strong performance from USA goalkeeper Tim Howard (pictured) who, despite a losing effort (Belgium won 2-1), managed 16 saves, the most ever for an American goal-stopper in a World Cup. Belgium will next play Argentina in the quarterfinals on July 5.

In addition to the live TV ratings boost, the match also set WatchESPN records, with an average minute audience of 1,107,000 viewers, a 7% increase from the previous record set by USA-Germany on June 26. WatchESPN averaged 3.5 million unique viewers and 190.2 million minutes viewed during the match, both records for the platform. The 2014 event has now delivered ESPN’s six largest audiences for men’s World Cup matches ever.

Overall, ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC have combined to reach more than 99 million people through the first 52 matches.

Additional highlights:

--ESPN’s television, digital and audio coverage generated a combined average minute audience of nearly 18 million people.

--At its highest point, ESPN’s telecast averaged 19,543,000 viewers and an 11.5 U.S. household rating from 5:30 to 6 p.m. while WatchESPN peaked at 1,500,000 concurrent users.

--ESPN’s telecast is the third most-viewed soccer match – men’s or women’s – in the United States behind ESPN’s record-setting USA vs. Portugal telecast and the 1999 Women’s World Cup final (USA vs. China) on ABC (17,975,000 viewers).

Spanish-language Univision Deportes also reaped rewards from the match: USA-Belgium was the network’s most watched Round of 16 contest ever, averaging 4.4 million total viewers (22% above its 2010 Round of 16 audience) and 2.3 million adults aged 18-49, a 10% increase over 2010.

The matches aired on the Univision Network, and simulcast on Univision Deportes Network (UDN), from Saturday, June 28, to Tuesday, July 1, 2014. Total viewers for USA vs. Belgium were 5.1 million and 2.4 million adults aged 18-49.

So far, Univision Deportes’ coverage of the 2014 World Cup has reached 70.9 million total viewers through the Round of 16 and the network’s coverage is pacing ahead of its 2010 World Cup telecasts by about 39% among total viewers and 27% among adults aged 18-49 through 56 matches.