Sports

The sports roundtable at B&C/Multichannel’s Hispanic TV Summit didn’t see the abundance of sports as competition for soccer and the eyes of U.S. Hispanic viewers.

A panel of top Hispanic network executives said passion for the game and announcer enthusiasm help drive viewers to watch La Liga MX matches.

With a growing base of younger enthusiasts in the U.S., soccer is poised to make a big splash on television in the coming years.

From a purely observational context, it strikes me that we’re at an interesting cross-roads in generational marketing. So much of what our sports fan and participant research focused on during the first decade of this century was meeting the needs of a maturing Boomer generation that did not always follow the leads of prior generations reaching a similar life stage. Fast-forward to the present day and it seems that everyone is trying to unlock the secret sauce that resonates with Millennials. And on the surface level this makes sense.

Erik Morales, Mexican boxing legend and eight-time champion, joins FOX Deportes as a boxing analyst it was announced by Carlos Sanchez, Executive Vice President and General Manager, FOX Deportes.    

Deportes Telemundo ushers the start of the new football season with its special “NFL Kickoff 2014 Presented By Xbox” from Seattle, Washington this Saturday, September 6 at 4:30 PM/3:30 C, featuring the stellar team of Karim Mendiburu, Ana Jurka, Leti Coo and Edgar Lopez.

Fútbol De Primera announced that the summer of 2014 will round out its first quarter century in business. To commemorate the company’s 25th anniversary, Fútbol De Primera will be using a commemorative logo throughout the year.

Hemisphere Media Group, Inc. secured exclusive rights to air the international friendly between the national soccer teams of El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.

Cardenas Marketing Network leverages multicultural authenticity to connect with U.S. Latino audiences via experiential marketing, live events marketing and digital marketing platforms including organizing premier Latin music concerts and soccer matches.

ESPN has reached a multimedia rights sublicense agreement with FOX Sports Media Group to carry a select package of UEFA Champions League matches across ESPN media platforms starting this fall with the 2014-15 season, through the 2017-18 season.

In the United States, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that futbol will be the new football in a couple dozen years. Maybe just a dozen. Or fewer. Maybe next week. After all, we are talking about a sport that leads the popularity list among Hispanic and immigrant populations of all stripes; and it is also becoming the sport of the next generation, thanks to organized youth soccer, and because it is cheaper to play, and less hazardous, generally.

mun2 kicks off the highly anticipated 2014/2015 season of the Barclays Premier League with three exciting matches

I’ve used this forum, in the past, to draw analogies between sports properties and exclusive and coveted communities that sponsors seek to become a part of. As one who runs a sports marketing research firm, my colleagues and I often play a key role in helping our property clients to better position that community as one that fits the marketing objectives for prospective partners.

ESPN Deportes created new monthly show Reportajes Especiales, premiering Thursday, August 7 at 7:30 p.m.

Riding the wave of soccer fever that swept the nation, automotive companies that advertised during the World Cup 2014 experienced twice as much growth in consumer interest on KBB.com compared to automakers that did not advertise during the event, 1 according to Kelley Blue Book. The greatest traffic surge occurred the week the U.S. Men’s National Soccer team competed against Portugal and Germany, as many Americans tuned in to the high-profile games.

The inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter Latin America debuts exclusively in Spanish in the United States on FOX Deportes on Monday, August 25 (10:00PM ET).

ESPN Deportes will present exclusive Spanish-language, multiplatform coverage of the second edition of the Guinness International Champions Cup starting July 24 through August 4.

The battle for number one continues with a change on top. As many have asked the LeBron James versus Michael Jordan question, we may not know how they would compare on the basketball court, but this year, James overthrows Jordan and is America’s favorite sports star.

With the World Cup only coming around every four years, the hype around these matches is huge. And with the growing number of soccer fans in the U.S., 2014’s tournament left many speculating that the game could be the next American pastime.

While this year’s World Cup host country may still be licking its wounds following a brutal loss in the semifinals to Germany, which ultimately beat out Argentina for this year’s title, there’s still much for Brazil to celebrate. In fact, many of this year’s World Cup “losers” may turn out to be winners after all.