Telemundo Set New Standards With Soccer Matches.
February 26, 2001
After concluding February 2001 sweeps, Telemundo’s most successful sweeps performance to date, the broadcast network continued its string of record-breaking ratings success with the broadcasts of the first World Cup qualifier match between U.S. and Mexico and international match between Mexico and Brazil.
The highly anticipated first match of the “Hexagonal Final” (The Final Phase of the Qualifiers) between Mexico and the United States, aired live on Telemundo on 2/28/01 (7:30PM-9:30PM EST) and delivered a HH Rating of 10.4 – that is, 928,000 viewing homes. Telemundo’s “USA vs. Mexico” broadcast beat the average delivery of both the 1998 and 1994 World Cups aired by Spanish-language competitor Univision; “USA vs. Mexico” delivered 379,000 more men 18+ than the 1998 World Cup and 333,000 more than the 1994 World Cup.
“USA vs. Mexico” not only established records against the World Cup, but outdelivered other major sporting events outside of soccer, such as the 2000 World Series on FOX2 and the NBA Finals on NBC3. Among the desirable men 18-34 demographic, TELEMUNDO delivered a triumphant 11.2 Rtg, beating the World Series average delivery of 6.7 Rtg by 67%, and NBC’s NBA Finals average delivery of a 7.4 Rtg. In fact, “USA vs. Mexico” outperformed the NBA Final’s among all key male demographics4.
Telemundo’s live broadcast of the “Mexico vs. Brazil” match (3/7/01 11:30PM-1:30AM EST) achieved an 8.3 HH Rtg (743,000 viewing homes) attracting an average of 1.4 million total viewers. Among the elusive men 18-34 demographic, “Mexico vs. Brazil” delivered a 7.1 Rtg – beating the 6.6 rating delivery of the 1998 World Cup.
“We united all our company’s resources to make this mega event happen and the real winners were our viewers”, said Jorge Hidalgo, Senior Vice-President of Sports for Telemundo. “These results confirm that our formula of combining the best broadcast sports team with quality events deliver superior ratings.”
