Clemenseando

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.

   

Telemundo's Miss Universe Ratings

Telemundo did well with Monday night's airing of the Miss Universe competition, which was also simultaneously broadcast in English on NBCU.

For the first half hour, the Hialeah-based network garnered a 1.0 rating as measured by the Nielsen Television Index or an estimated 1,633,000 viewers. By the final half hour of the two-hour program the number of viewers had increased to 2, 270,000 and a 1.2 rating. These are very strong numbers relative to Telemundo's usual performance. On weeknights, Telemundo telenovelas at 8pm, 9pm and 10pm generally bring in around one million viewers apiece. Occasionally, Zorro and La Esclava Isaura (see here for the latest ratings and here for background on Telemundo and Brazilian Telenovelas) bring in upwards of 1.2 million viewers.

Despite Telemundo's strong showing with Miss Universo, the NBCU-owned network still got beat by Univision.  "Destilando Amor" had more than twice as many viewers in the first half-hour of the beauty contest while Cristina had 400,000 more viewers during the last half hour of Miss Universo.

Those numbers point to the uphill battle Telemundo faces against Univision. The Miss Universe competition is intensely popular throughout Latin America and among U.S. Hispanic. Why? Maybe it is the high number of Latin American finalists and winners. Maybe other factors are at play. I don't know. I do know that the show is an enormously popular franchise among Latinos (for better or worse). And if Telemundo can't beat Univision even with Miss Universo, well, I don't know if there is much hope of any real competition between the two networks. Not a surprise but dramatic nonetheless to see the Univision and Telemundo ratings side-by-side.

What is a bit of a surprise is the number of people that opted to see the show in Spanish rather than English (2,270,000 Telemundo viewers versus 8,344,000 NBCU viewers). I'll request historical data and see if I can't get a sense of whether broadcasting the show in Spanish added new viewers or simply cannibalized audience members from the English-language show.

Either way, from an advertiser perspective, splitting up the audience is probably more attractive and more effective.

 

Impact of Mexican Football on Hispanic TV Ratings

Mexican football league (FLM in Spanish) playoffs are changing the usual lineup on Nielsen's list of top 25 primetime Spanish-language television shows. Five separate matches (three on TeleFutura and two on Azteca America) made the list.

The impact is seasonal. And it doesn't hurt that the final four includes three high-profile clubs with a large fan base on both sides of the border. (América, Chivas, Cruz Azul) The remaining semifinal team is Pachuca, my personal favorite.

Televisa and TV Azteca each have broadcast rights to roughly half the FLM teams. Televisa, in turn, extends the rights for U.S. broadcast to Univision (although those rights are currently in dispute). Univision often opts to air the primetime matches on its sister network TeleFutura, which is a neat bit of counter-programming. Those who want to watch their novelas can do so without interruptions. And those who would never miss an América-Chivas match just turn the dial to TeleFutura. TV Azteca takes a simpler approach of broadcasting the match through its network of affiliates in the U.S. - Azteca America.  

In these playoffs, TV Azteca is the only sure winner because it has broadcast rights for Chivas, Cruz Azul and Pachuca. Televisa owns the América football club. The playoff transmission will provide a boost to a network hit hard by Pappas Telecasting's decision to drop its Azteca America affiliation in several important markets. TeleFutura also benefits although less so. The FLM matches complement TeleFutura's airing of Major League Soccer games. Although it will probably be a while before an MLS game cracks Nielsen's list of top 25 Spanish-language primetime television shows.

Telemundo and Brazilian Telenovelas

Telemundo's decision to replace "Sin Vergüenza" with "La Esclava Isaura" is interesting because the network has a decidedly mixed record with Brazilian telenovelas. "Xica" and "El Clon" were both very successful for Telemundo. However, the Brazilian novelas that Telemundo was airing shortly after the network was purchased by NBC, well, those didn't do so hot.

In July, 2004 the NYT reported the following:

"Because Univision has a stranglehold on the main pipeline of telenovelas, from Mexico, the search for programming took Telemundo to Brazil. Mr. Wright noted ruefully that the idea of trying to build a Spanish-language network on programs dubbed from Portuguese was not a winning strategy. "It just didn't work," Mr. Wright said. "We were really nervous. As good as our sales guys are, you can't sell a zero rating."

The next month the Washington Post reported:

"Telemundo Communications Group Inc. suspected the problem was its telenovelas, the prime-time soap operas that form the economic backbone of Spanish broadcasters. Telemundo had imported some from Brazil that ended up being "devastatingly bad," Telemundo President James M. McNamara said. Dubbed from Portuguese into Spanish, the dialogue didn't match the movement of people's mouths and there was "lots of lip-flapping going on," he said."

This time around the 'lip-flapping' novela is doing better than Telemundo's in-house production. Its early performance is much stronger than the show it replaced. That said, the numbers are not huge. Last week's average of 919,000 viewers was good enough for for a number 16 ranking on the top 25 list.  The other Telemundo novelas fared better ("Marina" - 1,175,000 viewers, "Zorro" - 1,138,000 viewers and "Dame Chocolate"  - 1,073,000 viewers) but "Esclava" is clearly off to a good start.

The May 7th issue of Hispanic Market Weekly reported that Telemundo executive vice president of entertainment Carlos Bardasano gamely "insist[ed] that airing a non Telemundo-produced telenovela does not break from the network's strategy. "What we're doing is bringing our audience the best content," ... He adds that airing a telenovela that is not produced by Telemundo gives the network more time to develop other telenovela projects."

After GE's purchase of Telemundo five years ago, network executives talked up the in-house production strategy and the importance of producing "culturally relevant" novelas in the US for a US Hispanic market. After that strategy didn't work out as planned, Telemundo shifted resources and message to say they were producing telenovelas in Mexico and Colombia with the US Hispanic market in mind. Bardasano's predecessor, Ramón Escobar, told me for this Multichannel News article:

“We are still able to address issues of interest to the U.S. Hispanic. That's our view of it. We don't want to overplay or exaggerate the U.S. domestic issue of location. To us, it is more what are the issues that interest the U.S. Hispanic,” said Telemundo senior executive president of network entertainment Ramón Escobar. “The novelas are originally made for the U.S. Hispanic. We are not making them in Mexico for anyone other than U.S. Hispanics.”

(Actually, Telemundo's telenovelas are sold worldwide and perform quite well in the Spanish market and in a number of Latin American markets.)

Now with "La Esclava Isaura", Telemundo is back to importing a Brazilian telenovela. And the decision is paying off, at least for now. If "Esclava" works out for the full run of the program, then perhaps we'll see a few more telenovelas on Telemundo from way, way south of the border.

Top 10 Most Popular English-Language Shows Among Hispanics

The following ranking is for shows that aired during the week of April 30, 2007 to May 6, 2007. The ratings are compiled by Nielsen Media Research as part of their Hispanic Television Index. All rights to the list belong to them.

1) American Idol (Tuesday)

2) American Idol (Wednesday)

3) Grey's Anatomy

4) Desperate Housewives

5) Dancing with the Stars (Tuesday)

6) Dancing with the Stars (Monday)

7) House

8) Friday Night Smackdown

9) Ugly Betty

10) Heroes

PS "Bailando por la boda de tus sueños" ("Dancing for the wedding of your dreams") was number 8 on Nielsen´s list of most popular Spanish-language shows. The Televisa-produced show is similar in format and spirit to the "Dancing with the Stars franchise".

Hispanic Ratings Watch

Full Disclosure - I often write for a trade publication owned by VNU, which also owns Nielsen Media Research. Furthermore, more than a decade ago I worked for first Telemundo and then NBC.

La Madrastra is going from strength to strength. Tuesday was the highest rated episode last week when according to Nielsen there were some 5.65 million viewers. "Apuesta por un Amor" was second on the top 25 list of primetime Spanish-language programming. Cristina was third and since Boli-Nica seems to be interested Gilberto Gless was ranked seventh.

 "Cuerpo del Deseo" is Telemundo's top rated program at number 14 and is doing fine with a 5.9 rating. The reality show featuring Andres Garcia and his son Leonardo, "El Principe Azul", came in at number 15. (Mamita Mala wrote about the show in a post entitled "Mad Black Loose Latina". Definitely worth reading.)

Mexican soccer league programming provided both Telefutura and Azteca America with entries on the list. Once again, Ripley's hold the last slot on the top 25 list.

On the English side, Fox holds five of the top ten most-watched programs by Hispanics.

Hispanic Ratings Watch

Full Disclosure - I often freelance for a publication owned by VNU, which is the same company that owns Nielsen. More than a decade ago I worked for Telemundo and then NBC.

La Madrastra remains number one on Nielsen's list of top twenty-five Spanish-language primetime programs. Its 26.2 rating translates into an audience of over 5 million people, which is a very strong performance. Cristina is back in the top three and Univision holds the first thirteen slots on the list. Normally, it has the first fourteen programs.

Telemundo did well with Rumbo al Mundial with a 10.2 rating, which is the highest number I recall seeing for them in a long while. Their new reality show Principe Azul is starting off with decent ratings of 5.9 and Los Plateados continues to demonstrate slow but steady improvement from a month ago. Telefutura had two movies on the list and Azteca America snuck back onto the very bottom of the list with the airing of a football match.

WWE Smackdown! remains the most popular English-language program with Hispanics garnering an audience of more than 900,000 viewers.

El Chavo holds nine of the top ten slots on the Spanish-language cable ratings for a combined audience of almost 3.4 million viewers. It seems fans of El Chavo are busy buying DVDS of his program. Six hundred thousand of them to be precise.

PS Last week BoliNica made the valid suggestion that I include the full Nielsen list or a link to it. He was right. So here's the list.

Univision Summer

Today's Washington Post has a long article about this summer's decline in broadcast viewership with the notable exception of Univision. The Spanish-language network is referred to as "probably the summer's greatest success story" and the popularity of its telenovelas, "La Madrastra" and "Apuesta por un Amor" are duly noted. According to the Nielsen figures cited by the Post, Univision now averages 3.5 million viewers placing it squarely in fifth place among broadcast networks. The audience aged 18 to 49 has increased 23% since last summer, again, according to the Nielsen ratings quoted by the Post.

Univision's success is attributed, in part, to the "explosive population growth among young Latinos." The network is clearly trying to position itself in the eyes of media buyers and the general public as the favorite of young Hispanics. It is a tricky challenge given the limited Spanish of many second and third generation Latinos. How best to reach what I call Generation ¿Qué? is a matter of raging debate among Hispanic marketers and media executives and the subject of an ever-multiplying number of panels. According to the Nielsen ratings, young Latinos are busy watching telenovelas.

In trying to explain their appeal "David Woolfson, senior vice president of network research at Univision" resorts to a "Hispanics aren't used to taking taxis" comment and says "These continuing novelas strike a chord among Hispanics." Judging strictly from those individuals entering Clemenseando to read about the Final Episode of La Madrastra they are also popular in Israel, Romania, Russia and Turkey. Azteca, Globo, Televisa and Venevision export novelas the world over because (valga la redundancia) of their universal appeal.

Hispanic Ratings Watch

Full Disclosure - I freelance for a trade publication owned by VNU, which also owns Nielsen Media. Over a decade ago, I worked at television stations owned by NBC and Telemundo.

The primetime Hispanic ratings have returned to their usual shape and form. Univision's telenovelas again dominate the top three slots after several weeks when Cristina was enjoying a particularly strong performance. All told, Univision holds the first fourteen slots of the top 25 Spanish-language primetime program list. Principe Azul had a reasonably strong debut by Telemundo standards with a 5.9 rating, which place it fifteenth on the list. At 5.2, Los Plateados is doing better in the ratings after several particularly poor weeks. Telefutura has its standard allotment of four programs on the list that reflect the network's mix of sports and movies. Ripley's continues to move up the ratings ladder for Telemundo. I need to find out why. If you have any ideas, then send me an email.

On the cable side, Noticiero con Paolo Rojas makes what I believe is its first foray into the top ten Spanish-language cable programs.  El Chavo still rules the roost, though. In English, WWE Smackdown! (I always cringe as I type that invented exclamation.)

Hispanic Ratings Watch

Full Disclosure - Nielsen Media Research is owned by VNU, which is the same company that owns the trade pub, Marketing y Medios, where much of my freelance work is published. Furthermore, I worked for NBC and Telemundo over a decade ago.

No major surprises in the Nielsen ratings for last week's top 25 Spanish-language primetime shows. La Madrastra maintains an impressive and total dominance over every other program. On August 4th, it garnered a 27.4 rating, which according to Nielsen Media Research means it was watched in almost three million Hispanic households. "Apuesta por un Amor" is doing fine in second place. Cristina continues to do very well in third place.

Telemundo makes its first appearance on the list at the number 15 slot with "Cuerpo de Deseo", which has a respectable 6.0 rating this week. "Los Plateados" is doing a bit better than last week with a 4.7 rating, which is nothing to write home about.

Telefutura scored, as usual, with its mix of Mexican league soccer and movie premieres.

After a few weeks of scouring the Nielsen Hispanic Television Index of the top 25 primetime programs on English-language networks, I believe I can begin to make a few informed observations. Mind you, none of my comments on the English side should carry the same weight as what I have to say about the Spanish side as I have been following those ratings on and off for almost fifteen years. But, here goes.

WWE Smackdown! (I deplore the unruly use of exclamation points) is number one on this week's list. It is worth putting the audience numbers for the WWE program in perspective. If I am reading the Nielsen numbers accurately, then Smackdown! was watched by 602,000 Hispanic households. This would place it number 16 on the Spanish-language ratings list just behind "Cuerpo de Deseo." Not bad, but not great either. The Simpsons, which is tied for fourth place on the English-language list would come in at number 20 right behind "Los Plateados."

If you were to add up all the English-language programs on Nielsen's top 25 list for last week, then you would have an aggregate audience of 9,459,000 Hispanic households. Do the same for five episodes of La Madrastra and the aggregate audience would be 14,388,000 Hispanic households.