Univision announces cross-platform coverage of The FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010.

Univision Communications Inc. announced its extensive cross-platform coverage for the exclusive Spanish-language broadcast of the FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 – the most important tournament in international soccer and one of the most popular sporting events in the world. Broadcasting all of the event’s 64 matches in High Definition (HD), Univision will be transformed into the U.S. World Cup destination leveraging its market-leading assets – Univision, TeleFutura, Galavisión, Univision.com, Univision Móvil, and Univision On Demand – to deliver a one-of-a-kind experience for its audiences with nearly 900 hours of comprehensive coverage. The World Cup on Univision will begin airing live on Friday, June 11th at 8am Eastern/7 am Central/5am Pacific. Univision.com will also have live streaming at www.UnivisionFutbol.com.

All games will be broadcast live across every time zone in the country and each will have a minimum 30-minute pre-kick-off segment. The opening match, both semi finals and the final match will have a one-hour pre-game show. Crews on-location in South Africa will bring soccer fans every exciting minute, beginning with player arrivals to the stadium, presentation of the teams as they come through the tunnel onto the field, warm-ups, pre-game interviews with the coaches, in-depth analyses and match re-caps. Univision and TeleFutura Networks’ most popular programs including “Despierta América” (Wake-Up America), “El Gordo y la Flaca” (The Scoop and the Skinny), “Primer Impacto” (First Impact), “República Deportiva” (Sports Republic) and “Contacto Deportivo” (Sports Encounter) will feature special World Cup editions of their shows, highlighting the most exciting matches, exclusive and behind-the-scenes content, fan reactions, and cultural festivities around of all of the day’s events. In addition, Univision’s news teams, including “Noticiero Univision” (Univision News), “Aquí y Ahora” (Here and Now) and “Noticiero Univision Ultima Hora” (The Eleventh Hour) will also be on location to report on South Africa, its customs and the latest World Cup news. All of Univision Television Group’s local stations across the country will also provide extensive news coverage of the World Cup in their afternoon and late night newscasts.

“The FIFA World Cup Tournament is the most important sporting event for Hispanics bar-none,” said Alina Falcón, president of news, Univision Communications Inc. “We live it, just as our fans do, and we couldn’t be more excited to be bringing this world-class event to our viewers once again. By deploying all of our assets, soccer fans will be able to enjoy every moment of the tournament when and where they want.”

The network also announced that for the first time ever it will give viewers the opportunity to re-live all the excitement of the entire World Cup through its distribution partners, on the Univision On Demand platform. All games will be available to subscribers On Demand the very next morning after it airs live. Some distributors will also be offering the games On Demand in high definition.

Univision.com is an Official Internet Broadcaster of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and is providing all-around coverage of the tournament at www.UnivisionFutbol.com.