Telemundo Mexico vs Brazil gold medal match coverage sets network Olympic viewing record

“God bless soccer,” said sportscaster Andrés Cantor, as he prepared to call last Saturday’s historic Olympic men’s gold medal soccer match between Mexico and Brazil at Wembley Stadium in London. Telemundo might be expressing the same sentiment, now that ratings are in for their coverage of that event.

The network reports that the “Great Golden Final” — which Mexico won, 2-1, to give the country its first Olympic soccer gold medal — ranked as the most-watched Olympic event in Telemundo’s history, averaging 3.6 million total viewers and 2.2 million adults 18-49, according to Nielsen. The match also ranked as the highest-rated delivery among all of Telemundo’s weekend daytime soccer telecasts in the network’s history.

The game ranked No.1 in Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Dallas and Phoenix, regardless of language, capturing shares among Spanish-language networks ranging from 80 percent to 97 percent among total viewers. Saturday’s final brought in nearly 1.9 million total viewers and 1,077,000 adults 18-49 across the Telemundo stations of Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Phoenix, combined.

The “Great Golden Final” was a golden capper to Telemundo’s overall exceptional Olympics ratings. The network’s coverage of the London 2012 Olympics brought the stories of Hispanics participating in the games and the main events, both on the field and around the games, to the homes of U.S. Hispanic viewers. Telemundo says it has doubled its 2008 Beijing Olympics audience among total viewers during its first 15 days of coverage, according to Nielsen information. The Olympic coverage especially tailored to the Hispanic audience has delivered a total cumulative viewership of 19.3 million total viewers through 15 days of coverage — 29 percent more than the Beijing Olympics for the same period.