The New York Times says the “biggest scorer” of the 2014 World Cup may be Univision.
An A1 story in today’s paper adds up what the World Cup has meant to the dominant Spanish-language U.S. network: Univision coverage has topped competitors ABC/ESPN in markets including Los Angeles, Miami and Houston. The network has averaged 80 million viewers, or about 60 percent more than the 2010 tournament. Univision has carried the World Cup since 1972. But this will be the final tournament until at least 2026. Univision rival, NBCU-owned Telemundo outbid Univision for the Spanish-language rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Over on Fusion, which is a joint venture between Univision and ABC, the host of “The Soccer Gods” Nando Vila and Simon Carr, gave their predictions for today’s Germany-Argentina final to Univison News anchor Jorge Ramos. Says Vila: “Simon, before the tournament, predicted that Germany was going to win. I predicted that Argentina was going to win… so we have a lot riding on this, mainly our entire credibility.”