Less than two weeks before the Qatar 2022 World Cup kicks off, Telemundo Deportes announced that they will offer the “most extensive and ambitious” coverage of a World Cup, with more than 2,000 hours of transmission.
In a virtual press conference, featuring Ray Warren, President of Telemundo Deportes; Eli Velázquez, EVP of Sports Content; Romina Rosado, EVP of Hispanic Streaming for NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and Mark Marshall, President of Advertising Sales and Partnerships for NBCUniversal, the network revealed the musical package that will be used with the Qatar Cup broadcasts, Sueño de campeones (dream of champions), composed by Grammy winner Yoav Goren and recorded at London’s Abby Road Studios. Velázquez pointed out that this musical package will accompany these transmissions and future ones made by the chain of a World Cup.
Velázquez indicated that for the first time all 64 World Cup matches will be covered from the different stadiums with more than 30 voices; broadcast from 10 different locations and with a team of Telemundo Deportes of some 650: 300 working from Doja and some 300 from the US. He recalled they will be supporting all the daily coverage with additional programming from Qatar. The Peacock platform will have 27 channels dedicated to the World Cup. “The World Cup is everything for Latinos,” Rosado said.
Marshall noted that at this point the World Cup is completely sold out for NBCUniversal, with a few slots still available. He pointed out that the numbers exceeded those of 2018 and the goals for 2022 have already been achieved. “The World Cup is a communal experience that transcends language and culture. 20% of the US population is of Hispanic origin with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$2.8 trillion. The World Cup is the ideal event to reach Latino audiences,” he commented. More than 20 advertisers joined the broadcasts and the categories that report the most growth are automobiles, retail, fast food restaurants and technology. Ford will have the pregame show, the halftime of the games will be of T-Mobile and Coca-Cola, the postgame.
Velázquez added that although the games will not be produced in native 4K, they will be in a high-quality format that looks great on 4K TV sets.