Our partners were recently invited to celebrate the most exciting live sporting events, expert commentary and behind-the-scenes stories Univision Deportes Network offers Hispanic sports fans.
Taking place at Industria Superstudio in New York City, the chic tailgate experience commemorating the launch of the newly launched 24/7 all sports network brought out leading advertisers and executives from leagues like CONCACAF, Major League Soccer, FIFA, the NBA, the NFL and more. Party guests were delighted to meet the new faces of the network – Antonietta Collins, Alejandro Berry and Lindsay Casinelli, sportscasters of the new daily sports recap program “Univision Deportes Extra.” Natalia Saenz and Alba Galindo, the popular senadoras from Univision Network’s sports program “República Deportiva” also entertained guests. And making a surprise appearance was Luis “El Matador” Hernández, a former soccer player of the Mexican National Team and the LA Galaxy.
Amid the picnic tables filled with guacamole, tacos were served out of VW vans, while trick soccer dribblers, a Brazilian Batucada drum band and a soccer simulation game kept the energy going through the night. The unique celebration marked a year’s worth of anticipation for the Univision Deportes Network – a demand we delivered for our viewers.
A major passion point for Hispanics, sports has translated to ratings that only keep growing. Recently, we broadcast the international friendly featuring the Mexican National Team against the Colombian National Team that reached 8 million viewers. The match was the most-watched sporting event on all of Spanish-language television this year so far. Last year, the final match of the CONCACAF Copa Oro tournament featuring USA and Mexico broke records as the highest-rated primetime sports broadcast ever on Univision across all key demographics – over 10.8 million viewers tuned in to all or part of the match. Additionally, last year’s tournament was the highest-rated Copa Oro tournament broadcast in Univision’s history with approximately 20 million unduplicated viewers tuning in to some or all of the network’s 2011 coverage through the semifinal games. And not surprisingly, during the World Cup, the match between Mexico and Argentina alone was the most-watched broadcast ever for a Spanish-language network.
And Hispanics’ love of soccer is not just with men. While we see the majority of men watching, the entire family gathers around for games and tournaments all year long. This is why soccer, and sports in general, has been a pivotal piece of Univision’s programming during the past 50 years.
Last year, we aired 1,400 hours of soccer content across our platforms and reached more than 30 million fans. With the new Univision Deportes Network we’ve increased our sports programming to 10,000 hours – the most sports programming in our history. And we’ll now be able to provide all the sports content are fans have been asking us for – from exhilarating Liga Mexicana and Major League Soccer matches, to the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and other international tournaments to our original sports wrap-up show “Univision Deportes Extra,” online streaming, mobile apps and more.
We have changed the game and are excited to continue bringing the most comprehensive sports experiences to Hispanic audiences.
