BELLEVUE, Wash.—New data from iSpot.tv shows that the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup is delivering large TV ad impressions on linear TV, with more than 8.4 billion TV ad impressions across both the English and Spanish-language airings in the U.S., a 20% increase from the 7.1 billion TV impressions delivered in 2018.
The World Cup was the third most viewed programming, with 1.89% of all TV ad impressions from Nov. 20-Dec. 11, behind only the NFL and college football, respectively, iSpot.tv reported.
The surge in viewership on linear can largely be attributed to a hefty increase in viewership on Spanish-language programming on networks Telemundo and Universo.
Other highlights from the iSpot.tv data include:
- Spanish language network viewership of the World Cup crossed 5 billion ad impressions through 12/11, up from 2.14 billion for all the games in 2018.
- The World Cup is the top program by share of Spanish-language TV ad impressions from Nov. 20-Dec. 11, at 19.3%.
- For Spanish-language TV ad impressions, the top match day was Nov. 26 – the day of the Mexico vs. Argentina group stage contest.
- The presence of a USA team, absent in the 2018 cup has also buoyed interest in the U.S. The top match day for English-language TV ad impressions for World Cup was Dec. 3 – the day of the USA vs. Netherlands round of 16 game.
- Viewership for advertising is highest on Saturdays during the day
The above measurement figures are not inclusive of streaming on Tubi, Peacock or other digital channels and look only at linear and traditional VOD viewing trends.
