Whereas the long-lasting impacts of the 2023 FIFA Girls’s World Cup are nonetheless unfolding, the speedy progress of Spanish-speaking audiences is straightforward to see.
Regardless of the U.S. Girls’s Nationwide Workforce exiting the match within the knockout rounds—the earliest it has ever departed a World Cup—and powerhouses Canada, Brazil and Germany additionally getting bounced, the match persistently supplied strong viewership for Telemundo, which holds to unique Spanish-language rights to the FIFA World Cup.
And with newcomers Colombia and Spain turning into the primary Spanish-speaking nations to succeed in the quarterfinals, the occasion was primed for an elevated Spanish-speaking viewers.
“The Girls’s World Cup exceeded our expectations, and that’s regardless of the time variations and the challenges offered with the [U.S.] girls’s crew exiting sooner than anticipated,” Eli Velazquez, evp of sports activities at Telemundo, advised Adweek. “We did a number of work within the lead-up to the occasion the place we established that we had been going to be aggressive in how we lined it.”
Spain vs. Netherlands earned 968,000 viewers, the most-watched non-USA match in Girls’s World Cup historical past on Spanish-language TV, and the Spain vs. England remaining on Aug. 20 at 6 a.m. ET was the most-watched non-prime match of the match with 401,000 viewers on Telemundo.
“These explicit nationwide groups [Colombia and Spain], the supply and the efficiency of each of these squads on this match was fairly spectacular,” mentioned Velazquez. “The Hispanic viewers, the Latino viewers could be very aspirational, they usually search for tales that encourage them, and also you couldn’t have requested for a greater narrative from each golf equipment.”
Colombia made it additional within the match than it ever had earlier than, and Spain went on to win its first World Cup, although the membership discovered itself in disaster after the historic victory, demanding new management after years of mistreatment.
“Spain had wonderful gamers, they usually had some narrative challenges of their background earlier than attending to the match and nonetheless managed to win the World Cup,” mentioned Velazquez. “These tales translate to our audiences in significant methods as a result of it demonstrates that with laborious work, perseverance, you possibly can accomplish something. They’re competing on the highest degree and showcasing that facet of their journey to our audiences in ways in which folks actually join with.”
All through the match, Telemundo aired 33 matches stay on its flagship community, with 31 on Universo and each match streaming stay on Peacock. It was the primary time the community broadcast all 64 World Cup matches throughout its properties.
