The End Of Argentina-Cape Verde Was As Nerveracking As It Can Get!

😂 glad I’ve been watching the WC on Telemundo. Geez Fox Sports.. if this is what you call emotion then you really can’t see the forest for the trees.

I know there’s probably some corporate SVP or EVP over there basically saving their own career by pointing at the rising viewership and ad spend from WC to WC… just like I’m sure the announcers’ agents said the same BS to you (meanwhile your announcers are more concerned about taking selfies mid-Argentina game at a FIFA WC; while a college intern could do better color & technical commentary). If you’re wondering where all the engagement is on YouTube or why advertisers pay out the nose for (fewer) viewers on Telemundo as compared to Fox Sports, it is because you can’t simply drive emotion and engagement by labeling the game a ‘thriller!’ in even bigger all caps or having your announcers just yell louder. You don’t need to be a career media exec to understand emotions, you just need to be a human being.

Don’t believe me? Then why does Telemundo’s audience get treated with a premium ad spend while having fewer viewers, barely using split screen ads during hydration breaks, and basically relying on in-game background billboards; all while Fox Sports has way higher viewers, and you’re actually needing to sell intrusive ads such as full screen ad-breaks to make your numbers (in the midst of the largest global advertising gold mine event in history, mind you).

You are sacrificing your product’s quality so you can sell more quantity, that’s it. Every second and every pixel counts as your real estate to sell. …And were it not for sacrificing your own product, Fox Sports would have been taken to the cleaners compared to Telemundo. I’m sure that overall you probably did make more than they did but I’m also sure Telemundo’s execs basically name their price when it comes to their fewer smaller ads. Meanwhile you have to knowingly sell a product that you know your viewers are going to hate in order to be able to compete.

Fox Sports and Telemundo are literally selling the same product at different prices. You are just selling more of a worse product. Don’t let some career exec or McKinsey-type MBA consultant tell you differently.

You probably pay outrageous prices to your industry ‘specialists and consultants’, and I imagine your dumbfounded execs keep thinking the answer is “we just need to hire yet another ex-athlete who will truly understand the game and hopefully this time our corporate media trainers will be able to train them to drive more emotion than at a university lecture on tax accounting.” I can’t even imagine the billable hours or contracts you have with media training specialists, and this is the result time after time. I even know what their excuse will be: “it’s just that American viewers simply don’t know and appreciate the game as much as Latino viewers who have ties to their home countries”

Meanwhile y’all ignore that many Latino viewers ARE Americans (hence why they are watching Telemundo instead of their native country’s broadcasts), and you ignore how non-Latino fans also have home countries all over the world. You think Latinos follow the WC any more closely than folks from Europe or elsewhere? I invite you to watch France’s celebrations in Paris in 2018, or to see an English-person’s face when they describe the tragedy that is their nation’s WC performances since ‘66. The reason the USA doesn’t get as excited isn’t the English language, it’s that our nation is peppered with all cultures, and our American team’s branding feels more like we’re representing a corporation than a nation of 50 unique States filled with folks of all cultures, not to mention our team cannot even represent any of our Native Americans because of some clueless HR department.

To the hosts and sportscasters that I criticized, I impart one nugget of gold that was shared to me back when I myself wasn’t very good at what I do for work: just because you’re not good enough now doesn’t mean you’ll never be among the best, but if you keep trying to improve with the same people who are letting you be mediocre, you’ll never be among the best.

@Il-SKl

July 16, 2026 at 11:25 am