The Super Bowl will have greater Spanish-language distribution this year with the addition of coverage on Telemundo.
Spanish-language coverage of Super Bowl 59 will air on both Fox Deportes and Telemundo, it was announced Monday, with the two outlets producing separate telecasts. Telemundo, which is owned by NBC Universal, has previously carried the Super Bowl in years when the game aired on NBC.
The addition of the Telemundo broadcast is no surprise. The largest Spanish-language Super Bowl audiences have come in years when coverage aired on Telemundo or Univision, the two most widely recognized Spanish-language platforms. Niche cable networks like Fox Deportes and ESPN Deportes simply cannot generate the same level of viewership.
One of the reasons for last year’s milestone Super Bowl audience was the decision by CBS — which does not have its own Spanish-language outlet — to distribute Spanish-language coverage via Univision, rather than the previous practice of doing so via the lesser-watched ESPN Deportes. Univision generated a record 2.3 million, topping the previous high of 1.9 million for Telemundo.
By comparison, Fox Deportes chipped in just 882,000 for the previous year’s Super Bowl. The addition of Telemundo will not only keep Spanish-language viewership from receding to that level, but the two-network presentation — which Fox said Monday will be the “broadest Spanish-language distribution” in Super Bowl history — will likely result in a combined figure that surpasses last year’s Univision mark. That alone may be enough to keep the overall audience on par with last year’s official Nielsen record.
The NFL seems to be keenly aware of the spotlight on its viewership and the necessity of avoiding declines whenever possible. The league recently worked with ESPN to add six Monday Night Football simulcasts to ABC, a move that should keep viewership in line with last year’s 23-year high, when ABC carried games every week of the season.
It is increasingly apparent that sports leagues are recognizing the benefit of distributing games via the best-known Spanish-language platforms. Spanish-language coverage of this year’s American League playoffs has aired on UniMas, rather than the previous practice of airing those games on MLB Network. (English-language broadcaster TBS does not have a Spanish-language sibling.)
The NBA in its new media rights deal with NBC will see games air on Telemundo — rather than the lesser-watched Universo — for the first time in two decades.
