MarketingProfs

MediaBuyerPlanner: U.S. TV broadcasts of the 2006 World Cup in Germany on ABC and Univision are posting a 50 percent-plus improvement in viewership so far over the 2002 World Cup event, MediaPost reports.
Through the first eight games, Univision has been averaging 2.6 million viewers per telecast. ABC’s English-language television grabbed a 65 percent gain in ratings from two games versus four years ago.
Mediaweek reports that the match between Mexico and Iran on June 11 drew an audience of 5.4 million, making it the most watched sporting event in Spanish-language television history.
The main reason for the increases is fairly simple, MediaLife reports. In 2002, all of the games ABC aired on weekends were taped, as were those that aired in Univision in primetime.
These ratings should ease worries of advertisers who read polls taken before the World Cup began that reported that the estimated $420 million spent by U.S.-based advertisers in sponsorships for the 2006 Soccer World Cup might be in vain, as a majority of Americans were unaware of the sponsors or where and when the tournament would take place.
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