Sports

Univision Communications Inc. announced that an estimated 50 million viewers tuned in to the 2006 FIFA World Cup tournament on its three television networks – Univision, TeleFutura and Galavision – including 29 million Hispanics and 21 million non-Hispanics.

Soccer fans across the world enjoyed the “kick-off” of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, on Friday, June 9, 2006, where Germany, the host country, took on Costa Rica. The World Cup is scheduled to air on ABC, Univision, ESPN, ESPN2, and Telefutura over the next month, as teams fight to make it out of the first round and ultimately to the championship game on July 9. As World Cup fever continues to rise, Nielsen Monitor- Plus takes a closer look at the top product categories, top advertisers and average costs for a 30-second commercial in past World Cup games along with top brands for the two opening day games of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

In less than two weeks, the largest and most widely watched sporting event in the world will literally kick off. This event, known in the U.S. as the soccer World Cup, is organized every four years and this time around it will be hosted by Germany (a former host in 1974 and two-time World Cup champion). If you have worked in the global market for more than four years, you probably know how disruptive this event can be to global operations.

Following its groundbreaking effort to bring the game of dominoes to its viewers, ESPN Deportes, ESPN’s Spanish-language network, has reached an exclusive agreement with the International Domino Federation to televise rights of the governing body’s annual World Domino Championship as well as the federation’s national and regional tournaments in the Americas through 2011.

MasterCard International filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking an injunction against the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body of the FIFA World Cup to prevent FIFA from moving forward with an agreement with Visa International to sponsor the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups.

Azteca America announced the launch of the daily sports news program “Los Protagonistas a Nivel Mundial”, beginning June 5 at 10 pm EDT/PDT and 9 pm CDT through July 9.

On March 12th, 2005, only five months after becoming an International Skating Union (ISU) member a Puerto Rican figure skater representing the Puerto Rican Figure Skating Federation competed in an international competition. Seven months later, the same skater, Victoria Muniz, made sports history for a second time in Sofia, Bulgaria.