SRC: Majority of Hispanics Plan to Watch World Cup Matches.

According to a newly released TeleNacional poll by Strategy Research Corporation among 302 Hispanics nationwide, the average Hispanic will be watching the World Cup, will watch it in Spanish, and believes that Argentina will win the Cup. The poll conducted among 500 Hispanics nationwide between May 29 and June 5 2002, found that 58% of Hispanics plan to watch at least a few of the World Cup matches. Twenty-one percent say that they will watch “Most of the World Cup Games.” Over 75% of Hispanics that plan to watch the World Cup said that they would watch the games in the Spanish Language. Cuauhtemoc Blanco received the most votes for favorite player in the tournament. The margin of error for this poll is +/- 5.6.

According to Strategy Research Corporation’s 2002 U.S. Hispanic Market Report, Soccer is the most popular sport among Hispanics in the U.S. Over 31% of Hispanics nationwide consider Soccer their “Favorite Sport”. Only about 1% of Non-Hispanics consider Soccer their “Favorite Sport.” American Football is the most popular sport among Non-Hispanics, with 32% of Non-Hispanics reporting that sport as their favorite.

In terms of the outcome, over 21% of Hispanics believe that Argentina is the team to beat this year. Also, 16% think that Brazil will win their fifth World Cup, while 12% believe that Mexico will win the Cup. Only 5% of Hispanics believe that Defending Champion, France, will repeat in 2002. France lost the Cup opener to Senegal. Eight percent of Hispanics have high hopes for the U.S., thinking that the U.S. would bring the Cup to the U.S. for the first time in history. The U.S. plays its first match against Portugal at 5:00 am (EDT).

Univision bought the rights to transmit the World Cup matches in Spanish for the U.S., and it has scheduled to broadcast all 64 matches live in its Univision and Telefutura Networks. In addition, its cable network Galavision, will broadcast 25 “Matches of the Day”. ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 will be transmitting the matches in English. Based on the results of this study, Strategy Research Corporation estimates that over 6 million Hispanic households will be watching or listening to the World Cup matches and over 4 million households will watch the matches in Univision, Galavision, or Telefutura. Of the Hispanic World Cup audience, 25% of Hispanics planned to watch games live, 51% would watch the rebroadcast, and 15% would tape the game and watch it later.

Strategy Research Corporation asked Hispanics to vote for their favorite Soccer players in this year’s World Cup. Mexican forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco who scored Mexico’s first goal of the tournament against, is the most popular Soccer player in the World Cup among Hispanics. Eleven percent of Hispanics voted for Blanco as their favorite player. The Argentinean, Gabriel Batistuta, was the second most popular player with 8% of the votes.

For more information at http://www.strategyresearch.com