FIFA Men’s World Cup Streaming platforms are hunting rights to live sports in order to increase their audience. More often, these viewers are viewing in Spanish.
Companies in the media industry that are already focused on Hispanic audiences, like TelevisaUnivision and the nascent Canela Media, are bulking in content and rights to sports, and traditional streamers in the English language such as the NBCUniversal Peacock with Telemundo and Disney’s ESPN+, and Amazon’s Prime Video is adding simulcast programming that are available in Spanish.
This is an attempt to broaden the advertising and viewing opportunities as well as to take advantage of an increasing Hispanic streamer audience.
“Sports is the pinnacle of premium content that can really help a streaming service,” added Shirin Malkani, who is co-chairman of the group that represents sports at the law company Perkins Coie. “If you provide streaming in Spanish in addition to English there’s a chance that you’re not increasing your reach, however, you’re definitely increasing it by a significant proportion. It’s reaching people. which I believe that we’ve done a poor job of getting content about sports too.”
Hispanic viewers spend an average of 9 hours a day in media. The majority of this is television viewership in a recently released study by Nielsen that was based on the habits of viewers in July. The study found that the Hispanic audience is at “the forefront of cord-cutting,” and is now a significant large portion of viewers who stream as well.
Based on the research, Hispanic viewers spend more than half of their time watching streaming TV, surpassing the average viewer at more than 40 percent.
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“When I consider the Latino sector particularly … I see it as an extraordinary chance,” said Eli Velazquez the executive vice president for Telemundo Deportes. “Latinos are the youngest group among all the groups, by around 13 years old, and are the first to adopt technological advancements. They enjoy watching videos via streaming platforms.”
Traditional media firms throughout the globe are offering money for sports, as live sports continue to attract the largest number of traditional television viewers. They are also trying in order to turn their stream services profitable, and sports being an important source of revenue for subscribers.
In the FIFA Men’s World Cup, One of the main value drivers is the increasing popularization of soccer across the U.S.
Hispanic fans have been loyal supporters of soccer, a sport that is now growing in popularity among American families, aided by recent and partly by the return of soccer legend Lionel Messi to Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami.
Disney’s ESPN+ recently bought the rights to Spanish league LaLiga in both English and Spanish for a period of eight years.
FIFA Men’s World Cup Lifting the Spanish Language
The Spanish-speaking broadcasts allow media organizations to not only increase their subscriber base across a variety of demographics but also open potential advertising avenues as ads-based subscription levels help streaming services increase their profits.
“You can really have a personalized, customized ad load for the Spanish audience, and potentially a different set of advertisers,” Malkani declared.
Peacock as a streamer has already enjoyed the advantages of its sporting offering.
The parent company Comcast highlighted its growing sports portfolio that spans Spanish-language sports including — on the recent earnings call and noted that 2022’s FIFA Men’s World Cup in Qatar has helped the company grow its subscribers to 5 million in its fourth quarter.
FIFA Men’s World Cup Streaming accounted for 30% of all viewers watching 2022’s FIFA Men’s World Cup, contrasted with 9% for 2018 according to Telemundo Deportes.
Telemundo as well as Peacock show the match in Spanish. Fox owns the rights in English.
Peacock is a streaming service that has relied heavily on its lower-cost subscription, which is ad-supported, and was home to 24 million customers on June 30. Other streaming services such as Netflix as well as Disney+ are following the same pattern with subscriptions that are ad-supported.
“I think accessibility and convenience are why we’re leaning more into the streaming product,” Velazquez explained, pointing out that he frequently collaborates with NBC Sports and Peacock teams to determine the most effective stream strategy to broadcast Telemundo’s sport.
Peacock also broadcasts in Spanish certain Premier League soccer games in addition to The NFL’s “Sunday Night Football.”
NFL media rights in all languages are licensed by U.S. media companies, which can then sub-license the rights to other organizations in the event that they do not have an outlet in Spanish.
Amazon’s Prime Video, the exclusive source for “Thursday Night Football,” offers a Spanish-language telecast every week.
“It’s really cool when you have that hardcore fan base that’s learning [the sport] and follows the Thursday night broadcast,” stated Rolando Cantu, who was a former NFL player as well as an analyst for “TNF en Espanol.” “Now we’re part of the Latino culture, and Spanish-speaking people want to engage and consume our broadcast.”
Additionally, TelevisaUnivision will air the Super Bowl in Spanish in 2024. It’s still unclear when it’ll air via traditional television or streaming on TelevisaUnivision’s Vix platform which was launched in 2022.
Paramount’s network, CBS will broadcast the version in English of the game in TV as well as streaming.
FIFA Men’s World Cup Expanding Streaming
TelevisaUnivision has recently purchased additional rights to sports as a way to broaden the audience it reaches. FIFA Men’s World Cup Streaming is a way to broadcast more games.
The most high-profile soccer games featuring soccer’s English Premier League, LaLiga, and Serie A often take place in the same moment, which makes it difficult to find a broadcast spot on broadcast networks that are traditional.
“Five years ago, it was extremely difficult to make anything available on the screen as an avid soccer player, you’ll know that soccer is played during the weekend, usually on Friday and Saturday. Sunday, and occasionally Monday. Therefore, there’s a lot of overlap do you think?” said Olek Loewenstein the global sports president at TelevisaUnivision, and added that it was hard to accommodate different audiences as well as soccer fanatics.
“That’s the point where streaming is in playing on FIFA Men’s World Cup. You can now offer to Argentinians by incorporating the Argentinian league, and Brazilians through Brazil with the Brazilian league.” Loewenstein said.
TelevisaUnivision has recently renewed its contract for rights to the UEFA Champions League, paying about $225 million over the course of three years, as per an individual knowledgeable about the issue. TelevisaUnivision will also broadcast important soccer games, including Copa America, the Copa America tournament, and UEFA’s Euro matches next summer. This is along with being able to broadcast different soccer leagues like Liga MX.
“Over the past 10 years, premium rates [for sports rights] have gone up exponentially and non-premium rights have started to disappear,” Loewenstein explained. “People are betting on the premium rights out there because those are the ones that drive either audience or subscriptions.”
Loewenstein noted that the amount spent on sports currently is among the highest he’s witnessed since joining TelevisaUnivision in the year 2011. The fact that Vix has more to offer viewers, he added is a major factor in the growth of Vix.
“I have to get you to stay for the next month, or even the following week. That’s why I believe sports can play a significant function,” Loewenstein said. “For us, sports has been a very key component of the strategy of growth for the base.”
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