Latino Blog

``I think viewership numbers from the World Cup will actually be even more important than Census numbers,'' said Jose Cancela, founder of marketing and consulting firm Hispanic USA and a former Univisión executive. ``With the Census, there's been kind of an over-hype.''

Univisión Communications, whose holdings also include the TeleFutura Network, 63 television stations, Galavision -- the leading Spanish-language cable channel and Univisión Radio, already boasts the nation's fifth most watched network with its Univisión Network.

But advertising revenue for Hispanic media in general still lags behind what would be expected in a market with consumer purchasing power estimated at $1 trillion annually.

Conde declined to say how much advertising revenue is expected during this year's Cup, but he did say, ``We're virtually sold out across our platforms and we still have the phones ringing.''

For the past few months, a clock on UnivisionFutbol.com has been ticking down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the first World Cup game Friday, but Univisión has been preparing far longer.

Five years ago, it signed a $325 million deal for exclusive Spanish-language broadcast rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups and related FIFA events.

While Univisión regards the Mundial as an opportunity to cement its relationship with advertisers, hook new viewers and reach out to the Hispanic market with its new media platforms, the big question is whether the World Cup will make money for the company. NBC, for example, lost $223 million on the recent Winter Olympics.

During a conference call with media analysts last month, Chief Financial Officer Andrew Hobson said that World Cup expenses would be about $100 million this year.

But he also said there will be about $100 million in incremental revenue this year.

At the end of the day, we look at the World Cup from holistic perspective -- both the tangible and intangible benefits,'' Conde said.

But Univisión and its loyal fans also must figure into the equation. Four years ago, Univisión attracted more viewers in the important 18-49 years demographic than ESPN and ESPN2, the company said.

This year, Univisión also is expected to pull away some English-speaking viewers from ESPN. It not only has an English-language version of its soccer website, but also a seasoned team of soccer sportscasters who add excitement to the game.

The emotion of the call is far greater in Spanish than in English,'' said Cancela. ``In English, it's almost like narrating a croquet match.'' Univisión is capitalizing on that excitement with a marketing campaign for its coverage that it calls ``La Pasión de Mundial,'' which prominently features Shakira.