Fox Sports scored 14.27 million viewers across its TV and streaming services for its coverage of Sunday's USA-Netherlands FIFA Women's World Cup Soccer Final from France, making it the most watched English-language televised soccer match since the 2015 Women’s World Cup Final, according to Nielsen. 

The game, in which the U.S. defeated the Netherlands 2-0 to repeat as Women's World Cup champions, was down from the 22 million viewers generated by the USA’s win against Japan in 2015 -- a record audience for an English-language soccer telecast -- but was up 22% over the 11.4 million viewers for the 2018 men’s FIFA World Cup final, according to Nielsen.

The U.S.-Netherlands game was played at 11 a.m. ET compared to the 2015 USA-Japan game, which was played in primetime.

Overall, household ratings for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 were up 2% over full tournament ratings for 2015 and were up +11% over the full 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup, according to Nielsen.

On Spanish-language network Telemundo, the game averaged a total audience delivery of 1.6 million viewers, up 22% from the 2015 final, according to the network. 

During the tournament, Fox's U.S.-France telecast was the most-watched FIFA Women’s World Cup quarterfinal ever, and its coverage of the USA’s win over Chile was the most-watched FIFA Women’s World Cup group stage match ever, said Fox Sports. 

Fox Sports has scored some big audience numbers for its Women's World Cup tournament coverage heading into Sunday's USA-The Netherlands finals match.

Fox Sports is averaging 1.4 million viewers across Fox broadcast, FS1 and FS2 through the semifinals of its 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup coverage from France, up 6% through semifinal coverage of the 2015 tournament across Fox networks, according to Nielsen. 

The numbers include a whopping 7.0 million viewers who tuned into Tuesday's USA-England semifinal match. Overall, the game -- won by the USA 2-1 to catapult the team into the finals -- drew 7.3 million viewers across Fox and streaming services, according to Fox Sports officials. 

Wednesday's Netherlands -Sweden game delivered 2.3 million viewers on FS1, making it the most watched, non-US Women's World Cup semifinal on record, according to Fox Sports. 

Sunday's USA-Netherlands contest starts at 11 a.m. and can be viewed on Fox broadcasting network and Spanish-language network Telemundo. 

Liberty Global and Vodafone have named Jeroen Hoencamp CEO and Ritchy Drost chief financial officer of their proposed joint venture in the Netherlands, the companies said Tuesday.

Liberty Global and Vodafone announced the JV in February. The 50-50 partnership, which is still in the regulatory review process, is a combination of Liberty Global's Ziggo Dutch cable operations and Vodafone Netherlands.

Hoencamp is currently the CEO of Vodafone UK. A Dutch citizen,  he has led Vodafone’s UK business since September 2013 and was previously Chief Executive of Vodafone Ireland. In addition, Vodafone named Hoencamp CEO OF Vodafone Netherlands, effective Sept. 1.

Drost has been CFO of Ziggo since September 2015. Over a 17-year career with Liberty Global he has held a number of senior management positions including CFO European Broadband Operations and Managing Director and CFO of UPC Netherlands, Liberty’s predecessor Dutch cable operation. Prior to joining Liberty Global, he was an auditor at Arthur Andersen.

 “Jeroen and Ritchy are experienced business leaders with extensive operational, strategic and merger integration experience," Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao and Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said in a joint statement.We are delighted they will be shaping our companies’ shared mission to create a strong and competitive integrated communications provider serving consumers, businesses and public sector customers in the Dutch market."

Additionally, Liberty Global announced that Ziggo CEO Baptiest Coopmans will remain in that position until completion of the transaction, after which he will join the supervisory board of the joint venture as one of Liberty Global’s appointed directors.  Coopmans has served as Ziggo CEO since November 2014 and successfully led the merger and integration of UPC and Ziggo.

Vodafone Netherlands CFO Carmen Velthuis will remain in her current position until the merger has completed. Vodafone will announce her subsequent assignment at a later date.

 “I am particularly pleased that Baptiest Coopmans has agreed to join the joint venture supervisory board once the transaction is completed," Fries said in a statement. "He is an experienced leader and a trusted member of my executive team whose knowledge of the Dutch broadband and pay TV market will be invaluable. I look forward to working with Baptiest in this new role and exploring other opportunities in the Liberty group.”

As expected, Liberty Global and Vodafone have agreed to merge their operations in the Netherlands in a 50-50 joint venture valued at $29.2 billion that will combine Vodafone’s wireless communications assets in the country with LGI’s video, broadband and business services.

The JV will operate under both the Vodafone and Ziggo brands and will create a nationwide integrated communications provider with over 15 million revenue generating units – 4.2 million video, 3.2 million broadband, 2.6 million fixed line telephony and 5.3 million mobile customers.

As part of the deal Vodafone will make a $1.1 billion cash payment to LGI to equalize ownership in the JV.

Liberty Global and Vodafone have been talking on and off about an asset swap for several months, but talks broke down in September, reportedly on valuations. They were restarted in early February, which Vodafone confirmed in a statement, but provided no details.

The venture will strengthen LGI’s Ziggo cable, phone and broadband service in the Netherlands by giving the operators a strong wireless component.  The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

“This powerful combination of the best fixed and mobile networks in the Netherlands will deliver huge benefits to Dutch consumers and businesses,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said in a statement. “Throughout Europe, Liberty is capitalizing on the rising demand for lightning‐fast broadband speeds, the coolest digital TV platforms and apps, and seamless 4G wireless connectivity. Soon, both Ziggo and Vodafone customers in the Netherlands will be at the forefront of this new world, and we couldn't be more excited about our partnership with Vodafone. We look forward to working together to develop cutting‐edge converged services for the Dutch market.”

The deal also fuels hopes that the two companies could possibly move forward in the future on a broader combination. But, according to a report in the Financial Times, the two have insisted that the Dutch talks have not included discussions about any other parts of their respective businesses.

Both have pledged that the combined JV will invest in digital infrastructure, entertainment services and productivity for Dutch consumers.

“Together we will be a stronger competitor in the Netherlands, benefiting customers of both companies and the market as a whole,” said Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao in a statement. “This transaction marks a continuation of Vodafone’s market‐by‐market convergence strategy and we look forward to partnering with Liberty Global to create a fully integrated provider in one of our core European markets.”