Telemundo Deportes Initiates 100-Day Countdown to the FIFA World Cup, Unveils Sponsors and Digital Partners

Telemundo Unveils Initial Findings of an In-Depth US Consumer Focused Research Study Around the FIFA World Cup

Telemundo Deportes announced a line-up of top-tier advertising partners, digital partnerships, more legendary and groundbreaking commentators, and insights of its latest consumer-focused study around the FIFA World Cup.

“We are kicking off the 100-day countdown in a big way to celebrate this historic moment for Telemundo Deportes. This will be the most consumed and most widely distributed digital event in Spanish-language television history. All of the initiatives announced today support our mission to bring our viewers the most authentic and complete coverage in the history of the tournament,” said Ray Warren, President of Telemundo Deportes.

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Initiatives and updates announced include:

Sponsorships

Telemundo has teamed up with Coca-Cola, Sprint, and Volkswagen for the network’s exclusive Spanish-language coverage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia. Match halftimes and post-games will be presented exclusively by Sprint and Coca-Cola, respectively, and Volkswagen will present the network’s primetime show.

Original Content in partnership with VICE

As part of Telemundo’s plans to create compelling storytelling around the tournament, the network is partnering with VICE, the world’s leading global youth media brand, to produce short-form features and stories of the interesting, contagious aspects of the culture and fandom that the FIFA World Cup brings around the world. The content will air exclusively across Telemundo Deportes’ television coverage during the FIFA World Cup and will extend to TelemundoDeportes.com.

As part of Telemundo’s more than 1,000 hours of FIFA World Cup content planned across digital platforms, Telemundo Deportes announced a content partnership with NBCU Digital Lab to create “Somos el Mundial,” a digital docu-series to be featured on TelemundoDeportes.com and Telemundo Deportes’ YouTube page. In addition, BuzzFeed will create short-form content from the series to be integrated across its platforms. The series will debut in May and will continue running during the tournament.

“Somos el Mundial” is an intimate profile chronicling the powerful narratives behind the Hispanic World Cup countries as told through the eyes of key players. Each episode will center on an individual country and their upcoming journey to Russia 2018. The primary fabric of each episode will be comprised of interviews with players representing their country at the World Cup. Their interviews will focus on the history of their country as it relates to the tournament – national pride, what it means to be a citizen of this country, their emotions heading into the games, etc.

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Telemundo and COPA90 create first-ever U.S. Hispanic content creator network

Telemundo recently announced an exclusive partnership with the global soccer media company Copa90 to create the first-ever Hispanic content creator network focused on soccer. The first stage of the campaign kicked off in early February with a call to fans via Telemundo and Telemundo Deportes’ social media platforms and the COPA90 network, encouraging soccer fans across the US to submit content that showcases what fuels their passion for their national team, and demonstrate how they plan to support their team’s efforts during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.

In two weeks, the program received hundreds of entries from men and women across 19 different states delivering over 5.5 million total impressions across Telemundo Deportes and COPA90 social platforms, reaching 2 million fans. In the next phase, Telemundo and COPA90 will now select 24 finalists who will be tasked to share their stories in real-time during the international friendly matches scheduled to be played across the US late March.

The final selection of influencers will be part of a number of short films that will be created in anticipation of the FIFA World Cup and distributed via Telemundo and COPA90’s social media accounts. Influencers and content will be leveraged in Telemundo’s programming and marketing of the FIFA World Cup across all platforms.

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Telemundo Owned Stations to Deliver Unique Content for On-Air and Digital Platforms Directly from Russia

The Telemundo Station Group is dispatching a team of 11 journalists to the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, the largest team of local Telemundo journalists to ever report from an international, live sporting event.

The station group team – made up of sports, news anchors and producers from all across the country, representing different US Hispanic constituencies – will round-out Telemundo Deportes’ coverage of the World Cup by delivering the most relevant and compelling coverage about all 32 competing teams, including the teams that are of most importance to local Latino audiences.

Soccer Legends and Commentators to Join Telemundo’s Exclusive Coverage 

For the first time ever, Telemundo Deportes will introduce the first woman to provide in-match commentary for a FIFA Men’s World Cup in the US, regardless of language.

Viviana Vila will serve as an analyst for select matches during the tournament joining Telemundo Deportes’ renowned team of play-by-play commentators and analysts. The Argentine sports journalist has been covering soccer for radio and television in her native country since 1999.

Other additions to the team include iconic soccer personalities who will lend a unique “on-the-pitch” perspective to the commentating team. These names add to the roster of experts announced last year:

Tab Ramos: Former American soccer player who currently serves as head coach of the United States U-20 team and US Soccer Federation’s Youth Technical Director.

Diego Forlán: Uruguayan professional soccer player who currently plays for Hong Kong Premier League club Kitchee. Through his career, he also played for some of Europe’s top clubs including Manchester United, Villarreal, Atletico de Madrid and Inter Milan.

Jesús “Chucho” Ramírez: Former Mexican soccer player who, following his professional career took on the challenge of coaching. He served as manager of the Mexico National Team and won the U-17 World Cup in 2005.

Teófilo Cubillas: Former soccer star considered one of Peru’s greatest players and the country’s all-time leading scorer with 26 goals in 81 matches.

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FAN INSIGHTS STUDY

In an exclusive partnership with Horowitz Research, Telemundo unveiled the first phase of findings from the most in-depth consumer research initiative to ever be conducted around the FIFA World Cup in the US, focused on fandom, culture, technology and brand building.

Findings from the first phase of insights show that 9 out of 10 Hispanic soccer fans plan to watch the FIFA World Cup from beginning to end. Most (77%) Hispanic soccer fans plan to watch World Cup matches live on television, but when they can’t catch the matches live, 46% say they will live stream matches and 31% will stream matches on demand, setting up 2018’s World Cup to be the most cross-platform in history.

Telemundo’s research emphasizes that Hispanic millennials are leading a shift towards soccer in America’s sports culture, with 2 in 3 Hispanic millennials saying they are soccer fans.

In fact, 61% of Hispanic millennial males would risk getting in trouble at work to stay home to watch an important World Cup match; 68% would rather give up all of the rest of the content on TV than give up soccer; and 52% would rather spend the day hanging out with their favorite soccer team than with their own family.

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