Telemundo’s advertising sales for the 2022 World Cup are running well ahead of their 2018 pace, the Comcast NBCUniversal unit said.
“We’re currently 12 months out and have already doubled the number of deals relative to the comparable time period in 2018,” said Dan Lovinger, executive VP for sales at NBC Sports Group, speaking at a presentation marking a year before the World Cup kicks off in Qatar.
Lovinger said that Telemundo had doubled its linear ad revenue for the event, and tripled the digital revenue generated at this point four years ago.
Three major presenting sponsorships — pregame, halftime and postgame — are already sold out. “We have limited positions elsewhere, in and around our presentation of FIFA World Cup, but they’re moving fast and we expect most of our inventory to be sold before our traditional upfront spring window.”
Sports sales have been strong across the board and NBCU is also in the process of selling commercials in the upcoming Super Bowl and the Beijing Olympics. The World Cup will add to NBC’s sports arsenal over Thanksgiving, with four live matches leading into an NFL primetime telecast.
“In this shifting media landscape, major events like Qatar are vital to marketers and the demand for inventory is actually stronger than ever,” Lovinger said.
Four years ago, the audience for the World Cup was 40% female and nearly 80% of Telemundo’s adult 18-49 audience was bilingual, he said.
“For Hispanic audiences, the FIFA World Cup is their Super Bowl and their Olympics combined and because of that reach and scale, we already know that we're going to deliver the biggest event in Spanish language media across all platforms in 2022,” Lovinger said.
Telemundo is preparing to present its most ambitious multimedia coverage with all 64 matches broadcast live, including 56 games airing on Telemundo and eight on Universo.
The games will also be available on live stream with authentication.
Telemundo said its production will feature the largest on-site presence ever. For the first time, there will be in-venue presence for all 64 games, taking advantage of the proximity of the stadiums with commentators calling multiple matches in one day.
There will also be more pregame, halftime, and post-match coverage from onsite studios as well as all positions across Doha. Telemundo will add crews to emphasize the most relevant teams for the U.S. Hispanic audience — the U.S. and Mexico sides.
National Soccer Hall of Fame member and six-time Emmy award winner Andrés Cantor will return as chief commentator, marking his 12th World Cup and his 10th as play-by-play announcer.
In terms of marketing Telemundo will use NBCU’s portfolio of assets to connect with World Cup fans and generate awareness around the one-year countdown to the tournament. The promotional efforts will be led by a campaign that had its debut Tuesday with Telemundo’s broadcast of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying match between Canada and Mexico. The match, which Canada won, 2-1, was Telemundo’s most-watched sporting event since the 2019 Copa America Final Brazil vs. Peru, the network said Wednesday.
The spot showcases how the World Cup is only a year away. ■
