The World Cup final may not have been played, but NBCUniversal’s Telemundo is already hoisting its trophy over how it covered the month-long tournament.
On Wednesday, the broadcast network held a FIFA World Cup Playmakers Summit at the famous Studio 8H, home to Saturday Night Live at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York. At the summit, which explored the intersection of sports, media, and culture, Cesar Conde, chairman, NBCUniversal News Group, praised the Spanish-language network’s multiplatform coverage, saying, they’ve been able to bring “a unique authenticity to the coverage of this World Cup.”
Speaking to NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas, who moderated the session, Conde explained some of the strategies that led to the network’s success.
Conde noted that Telemundo has been able to get local with its coverage, which has resonated with its audiences, who are primarily from Hispanic communities across the U.S. and the diaspora, and follow the sport in large numbers.
Additionally, Telemundo brought iconic soccer figures from Spanish-speaking countries participating in the World Cup together with the network’s expert soccer analysts: “So that when audiences are watching from Colombia or from Argentina or from Mexico, they’re not only seeing our great Telemundo team, they’re also seeing the stars and the icons of their past from soccer,” Conde said.
Kicking up the viewership
To date, the World Cup coverage through the quarterfinals across Telemundo, Universo, Peacock, and Telemundo streaming platforms is averaging 5.9 million total viewers, up +150% from the 2022 tournament in Qatar, which averaged 2.4 million during the same period.
Since the start of the World Cup on June 11, Telemundo has ranked as the No. 1 Spanish-language television network for all 30 matchdays during Total Day from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m., averaging 1.9 million total viewers. It has also captured 76% of the share among the three Spanish-language networks.
When asked by Llamas whether the sports economy has undervalued the Hispanic community, Conde said that for any company that wants growth in the U.S., they need to focus on the three Ms—millennial, multicultural, and mobile—qualities already indicative of the Hispanic community.
“I think America, and specifically corporate America, is increasingly still waking up to the opportunity that we have in the Hispanic community,” Conde said.
Telemundo’s success with this year’s World Cup has led to the belief that NBCUniversal may put its hat in the ring for both the Spanish media rights and the English media rights for the 2030 World Cup and beyond.
FIFA is considering selling those rights as a single package rather than individually, with bidding estimated to reach $2 billion.
