This week’s Sports Media Podcast features a special segment from SBJ’s Media Innovators conference in Manhattan, with TelevisaUnivision Global Head of Sports Olek Loewenstein joining co-host Austin Karp to discuss the company’s success and strategy in targeting Hispanics in the U.S. — and how it’s finding viewers outside its traditional audiences.
On TelevisaUnivision’s success with the Euros and Copa América: “It was a very good combination of events we had, with the Euros during daytime on our platforms and leading into Copa América games proved to be a fantastic combo for many reasons. One, we brought much younger audiences to our screens. Two, we beat ratings records, as I said. … We had very big numbers, even better than the World Cup. It was a very good success. … And Copa América was fantastic. We were lucky that Colombia and Argentina were in the final, with Argentina winning and Messi lifting yet another trophy.”
On Liga MX’s performance: “We’re victims of our own success in the sense of the growth of soccer in the U.S. We started with our sports network in 2012. We’ve been big advocates of soccer in the U.S. It was a very Hispanic-centric sport 10 years ago. As we know, Mexican Americans make up the majority of those Hispanics, and it was a big league back then. Younger generations in the U.S. have grown to explore the sport. Many of the other leagues, the German league, the Premier League, the Spanish league, have grown in interest. Liga MX keeps being the most-watched soccer league in the U.S. as because it’s in prime time. It’s broadly available, and there’s tonnage on our networks. You can use any numbers to justify anything, like any growth … but as of today, Liga MX continues to be the biggest soccer consumed in terms of reach and in terms of ratings in the U.S.
On the importance of airing the Super Bowl and World Series: “It’s very important to diversify, one, in terms of sports, and two, because the second and third generation of Hispanics that are coming up and starting to consume more content than before are not only interested in soccer anymore. They’re probably college educated. They’re watching football. They’re watching baseball. Baseball is a very local sport in that sense. And Hispanics in New York are very attached to their teams, Hispanics in L.A. are very attached to their teams, which speaks to the success of what we had now in the first game of the World Series. So, we’ve explored those deals. We’re looking to explore them more, potentially in basketball, potentially with flag football, potentially in other sports.”
