Categorized | Programming, TV & Radio

Telemundo paid $600 million for World Cup

Posted on 23 October 2011. Tags: , , , , , ,

Telemundo is paying $600 million for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup Spanish-language U.S. rights and Fox is paying between $400 to $500 million to broadcast the games in English in the U.S.

Although a Telemundo spokesman said they were not disclosing details of the financial agreement, The Wrap, B&C, The Wall Street Journal and Sports Illustrated are reporting inside sources familiar with the bidding revealed the stunning $1 billion dollar combined pricetag.

Univision paid $325 million for the 2010 and 2014 World Cup rights. ESPN paid $100 million.

The Telemundo deal includes exclusive U.S. Spanish-language all platform media rights (excluding radio) for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, FIFA Confederations Cup and all Under-20 and Under-17 FIFA World Cup matches in this time period.  The all-encompassing media agreement also includes exclusive coverage and promotion of FIFA soccer events across multiple NBCUniversal properties including Spanish-language broadcast and cable television, Internet, broadband, wireless and Video-On-Demand.

“This landmark deal for Telemundo represents perhaps the greatest milestone in its history,” Lauren Zalaznick, chairman, NBCUniversal Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integrated Media, said in a statement. “The acquisition of the FIFA World Cup, one of the world’s great sporting events, speaks directly to the commitment NBCUniversal has made in the future of Telemundo and to our diverse U.S. Hispanic communities that we serve.”

According to a release, Zalaznick was on a plane flying home from Zurich when the deal was officially announced.

How will Telemundo justifiy the expense?  The WSJ reports “one person familiar with the thinking at Telemundo parent NBCUniversal said that the network hopes to use the World Cup as a way to wrangle paid subscription fees from cable and satellite operators in coming years.”

This post was written by:

- who has written 4587 posts on Media Moves.

I'm an Emmy award-winning journalist, who's worked as an on-air reporter in Spanish and English-language television news. I've worked for Univision, Telemundo, CNN en Español and Los Angeles Fox and UPN stations before diving into a convergence model at the San Jose Mercury News. I have also held management positions in the online digital sphere - first as Managing Editor of IntersectionsSouthLA.org, followed by a role as the West Coast Web editor for impreMedia. I was president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists from 2004 to 2006. I am also a freelance writer, reporter and producer. I founded Media Moves in June of 2007.

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2 Responses to “Telemundo paid $600 million for World Cup”

  1. Jairo says:
    October 24, 2011 at 9:33 PM

    …..and to fire more people if necessary.

  2. Mario says:
    November 2, 2011 at 6:54 PM

    YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BRAVO TELEMUNDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    I Hate Biasovision!!!

    My only concern is. How do they plan to air the simultaneous games, if they only have 1 channle??

    But still, CONGRATULATIONS!!!

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I'm an Emmy award-winning journalist, who's worked as an on-air reporter in Spanish and English-language television news. I've worked for Univision, Telemundo, CNN en Español and Los Angeles Fox and UPN stations before diving into a convergence model at the San Jose Mercury News. I was president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists from 2004 to 2006, and inducted into the Hall of Fame in August of 2016. As an online news manager, I was West Coast Web Editor for impreMedia and Managing Editor of IntersectionsSouthLA.org. In addition to running Media Moves, which I founded in June of 2007, I'm a regular contributor to Forbes and also do freelance work as writer, reporter and producer.
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