Monday, July 5, 2010

Spanish-Language Radio Gets World Cup Fever

2010_logo_large The World Cup has been a ratings boon for Spanish-language radio.

In Los Angeles, the country’s largest Hispanic market, 17.2% of Hispanic men in the 18-49 demo tuned in to listen to at least five minutes of the opening match between Mexico and South Africa across the two radio stations that broadcast the game. Among 18-34s, that number was 16.1%.

Entravision Communications owns the two stations that aired the game.

In addition to the fact that the Mexican team was playing in the opening game, another reason for the strong showing was that the game took place during morning-drive time, writes MediaPost. Listeners from the neighboring Riverside-San Bernardino market- the 10th largest Hispanic metro area in the U.S. - also boosted ratings.

More stats:

  • 8.3% of all Hispanic 18-49 men in Los Angeles listened to the U.S. vs. England game on June 12.
  • Nearly 12% of Hispanic 18-49 men in L.A. tuned in to some part of the Paraguay vs. Italy game on June 14.
  • 12% of the demo listened to the Chile-Honduras game on June 16.

Futbol de Primera is syndicating the World Cup games in Spanish to more than 100 affiliates, including 21 Entravision stations. Entravision is carrying World Cup games in 15 markets. Meanwhile, ESPN is carrying the games in English on the radio for the first time ever, and more than 300 stations have picked up some of its feeds.

About 14.5 million Americans have listened to at least part of ESPN’s radio coverage, the network claims. ESPN also says that 132 million have consumed the World Cup across all ESPN platforms, including ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, plus internet, mobile, and radio coverage, and ESPN magazine, reports The Wrap.

TV Ratings Strong, Too

Nielsen has estimated that through round 16, 99.2 million viewers, or 34% of the potential audience, viewed at least six minutes of the World Cup across English or Spanish-language TV. In 2006, the entire World Cup was watched by 91.4 million television viewers, writes the Houston Chronicle.

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