Telemundo Tallies Top Demo Mark With Mexican Soccer Match

Wednesday’s World Cup Qualifier Against Honduras Sets 18-To-49 Record

By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 8/22/2008 3:28:00 PM

Mexico’s CONCACAF World Cup qualifier Wednesday night drew the largest 18-to-49 audience in the network’s history.

The team’s 2-1 triumph on Aug. 20 over Honduras drew nearly 2.04 million of those viewers, making it the highest total in the Spanish-language broadcaster’s history with that demographic when gauged from an NTI basis, according to network officials.

All told, the match -- part of Telemundo’s exclusive coverage of the Mexican national side under its Rumbo Al Mundial banner -- garnered 2.8 million viewers. Including in that total were Rumbo record totals with men 18 to 49 (1.53 million) and persons 18 to 34 (1.28 million).

In Los Angeles, the game ranked first among adults 18 to 34 with a 6.2 rating, adults 18 to 49 (5.8), adults 21 to 34 (7.0) and adults 25 to 54 (5.5) across all stations in the market for the time period. In Houston and Dallas, the Mexico-Honduras game was second among all stations in the markets during the time period against adults 18 to 49 (6.7 and 4.6, respectively), trailing only NBC’s coverage of the Beijing Olympics.

Through the seven games its aired in 2008, Rumbo has reached 6.2 million persons 18 to 49 and 10.2 million total viewers, according to NTI cume data.

“Our Rumbo franchise has garnered great success this season," said Telemundo senior executive vice president of network sports Jorge Hidalgo in a statement. “Wednesday's historic results in addition to our stellar Olympic coverage further solidify Telemundo's position as the ultimate destination for the best in sports programming for U.S. Hispanics.”