Telemundo chief says World Cup broke Spanish-language records
Telemundo has never seen ratings like it. That was the message from Luis Fernández, chairman of NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, on 1 October in Madrid.
Fernández was speaking on Thursday afternoon at the sixth edition of Iberseries & Platino Industria, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. The event ran from 29 September to 2 October at Matadero Madrid, according to Iberseries & Platino Industria. His session was billed as a keynote on leadership, relevance and transformation in the Spanish-language audiovisual industry.
His headline claim was about football. Fernández said the 2026 FIFA World Cup was the most-watched sports feature in Spanish in the United States, and that Telemundo never had those ratings. He was describing the combined offer across Telemundo and Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming service.
The streaming numbers told the same story. Five out of the 10 most-watched programmes on Peacock were events that happened during the World Cup, Fernández said. He did not give a measurement period beyond the tournament itself.
Then he turned to live television. Fernández said linear TV, meaning traditional channels watched live as they air, still has a lot of power in live shows. He described streaming services as rivals and competitors.
Sports rights sit at the centre of what comes next. Fernández said sports licensing, meaning paying for the rights to show leagues and tournaments, is one of the key pillars of Telemundo's strategy for the coming years. It is an area the company is investing in.
That bet already shapes plans for the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics. Fernández said Telemundo's advertising sales team expects better ad momentum for those Games than previously thought, based on how the World Cup was presented and consumed.
NBCUniversal's press office has also flagged the football result. Its press-releases page lists a featured Telemundo release titled "Telemundo and Peacock Redefine Soccer Fandom in the US with Record-Breaking Audiences for Spanish-L...", according to NBCUniversal.
What makes this stand out for viewers is the pairing. Big live sport is being used to drive both broadcast audiences and streaming sign-ups at once, rather than one replacing the other.
