Time-zone differentials evidently don't matter to die-hard Hispanic soccer
fans.
Early ratings for Univision and recently launched sister broadcast network
TeleFutura's coverage of the 2002 World Cup from Japan and Korea are outpacing
the Hispanic broadcaster's performance with the 1998 soccer tourney from
France.
Through the first 11 matches, Univision and TeleFutura, citing Nielsen Media
Research data, have averaged 982,000 households, a 24 percent improvement over
the 793,000 that watched on Univision alone during the 1998 World Cup.
Univision is airing matches live, which means they screen during the middle
of the night in the United States, while TeleFutura has been replaying some of
the contests during the day.
Galavisión, Univision's cable network, has also been scoring with World Cup
coverage. A network spokeswoman said that through the first five days of
Galavisión's 'match of the day' coverage, airing from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.,
ratings were up 126 percent over the corresponding time period, which includes
the network's recently launched news magazine, Por Usted, from 8 p.m. to
9 p.m.
Univision and TeleFutura have also notched significant increases in demos
with their Copa Mundial coverage, registering double-digit gains ranging from 15
percent among adults 18 through 34 (515,000 of those watchers) to 49 percent
among men 18 through 49 (574,000), vis-a-vis Univision's coverage of the 1998
tournament.
Univision also claimed that it's winning the World Cup battle head-to-head
against ESPN and ESPN2, which are also carrying the action from Japan and Korea
live in the late-night and overnight hours.
Gauged over nine matches, Univision said it averaged 640,000 households
versus a 444,000 average for ESPN (three matches) and ESPN2
(six).
