In its debut, the new playoff round will deliver incremental value for all three networks. In each of the four wild-card matches, the higher-seeded team is the host, meaning the networks who hold the rights to teams seeded No. 5 through No. 8 pick up an extra match. Fox Deportes holds the rights for the fifth- and eighth-seeded teams, Monterrey and Santos Lagunas, meaning it adds two games. Univision gains an extra game featuring sixth-seeded Tigres UANL, while Telemundo scores an additional game featuring seventh-seeded Chivas, one of the league’s two-most popular clubs.
“It’s a change that will carry on for the future, so even though this year we’re only getting one of these games, in other years we might get two or three,” said Marco Liceaga, senior vice president of marketing and business development for sports at Univision. ”So overall, it’s positive because it gives you more high-quality content.”
Univision’s Liguilla telecasts typically rank among the most-watched soccer programming in the United States each year. During the 2019 Apertura season, Univision averaged 1.47 million total viewers per postseason match, topping out at 2.99 million for the second leg of the final between Monterrey and Club América.
Regular-season viewership for the recently completed Apertura schedule on Univision from July through early November was down 16 percent from the same period last year, averaging 628,000 total viewers for 38 matches amid an industry-wide ratings decline for live sports in recent months. Viewership since a Week 11 match between Chivas and Club América is up 45 percent from the early portion of the season.
Liceaga added that he expects the wild-card matches will be compelling to fans because of the single-elimination format, which differs from the two-game home-and-home format the league employs in subsequent rounds.
“The way it's going to be played, with just one game, will make very compelling television, and I'm sure fans will be engaged,” he said. “That momentum and that engagement and that interest will be carried on to the quarterfinal round and on in the competition. So, yes, I think for advertisers, for us, for the teams, it's positive.”
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