Azteca America Scores Largest Audience Ever With Mexican Football Final

Not surprisingly, last Sunday's match between Club América and Pachuca brought Azteca America its highest ratings ever. 1.9 million viewers saw Pachuca win its fifth Mexican Football League championship in a decade.

The popularity of the match underscores the importance of Mexican football coverage to the number four Spanish-language broadcaster. However, the fact that the semifinal match between América and Chivas drew a larger audience than the final suggests that Azteca America still faces distribution problems. Quite likely, not everyone who wanted to see the match could actually do so.

Azteca America relies heavily on low-power stations combined with cable and satellite carriage (See here to read about one such Azteca America television station group.) Univision, on the other hand, enjoys near-universal distribution throughout the Hispanic market.

Azteca America is unlikely to equal the match's ratings with any other show for years to come.