The World Cup is almost into the second round but the real competition might be taking place behind the cameras, between the broadcasters. In the U.S., two companies have television broadcast rights: Disney (ABC and ESPN) has the English-language rights and Univision (Univision, Telefutura and Galavision) has the Spanish-language rights.

It was expected that Unvision would do well in the ratings since their Latino audience is generally regarded as being more fanatical about soccer than the “gringo” viewers of ABC or even ESPN audience. This proved to be the case during the inaugural match when Univision drew 5.6 million viewers, almost double the audience of ESPN. However, Univision did not beat ESPN during any of the following seven matches, and got especially trounced during the England versus USA match which was attracted 10.8 million viewers on ABC; the largest audience for any U.S. World Cup match since 1994 .

The strong ratings for Univision and ESPN demonstrate both the strength of Univision (to compete effectively in sports against ESPN) and the growing attraction for soccer in the U.S. (since the ABC ratings have surprised most media pundits). It’s been difficult to get information for later telecasts but Univision did issue a press release for the Mexico versus France match noting that their audience of 5.8 million was double ESPN2′s and the most watched game to date for Univision during the 2010 World Cup. Odds are strong that this record will be broken by this Sunday when Argentina plays Mexico in a second-round match at 2:30 p.m. This is also likely to be another “victoria” for Univision against ESPN.

Although I really love my new job in online advertising sales, as I previously worked for 12 years in TV, I am still irked when I hear media pundits declare the inevitability of television’s demise. It was thus with some sense of reassurance and satisfaction that I recently read the positive report by The Economist of the TV industry “Changing The Channel,” but perhaps it would be more aptly titled “TV Ain’t Dead Yet.” Among the report’s key points:

• Increased and better programming options: Clearly television is no longer the domain of the “big three” networks. A myriad of networks now proliferate resulting in greater programming options which satisfies more diverse interests, but also creates increased competition which improves overall quality.
• Increased viewing options: Besides having more things to watch consumers now have more options on how or when to view it. First of all there are more sets now in households. Secondly there are other platforms for viewing (iPods, Hulu, etc.). And finally there are also adjunct devices which allow consumers to record programming or view it on demand.
• Increased consumption: Programming and viewing improvemetns have yielded greater total consumption. On average a U.S. viewer watches over five hours of television per day, about a third more than what a person normally estimates.

The report also busts five myths surrounding the television industry:

• Myth #1, Death by DVR: Although DVRs have penetrated 34% of the market, time-shifted viewing is not threatening television’s advertising business model. Viewers will almost always watch live programming before considering recorded programs. This is backed up in a recent study by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business which finds that 95% of people watch television live.
• Myth #2, Commercial Aversion: Even without DVRs it is believed that people ignore or evade commercial breaks, but a recent study by the Council on Research Excellence indicates that “TV advertising and programming promotions reach 85% of adults daily.”
• Myth #3, Online Viewing Cannibalization: It is also believed that online viewing is hurting television ratings but the average YouTube viewer watches only 15 minutes of video per day on the site, compared with five hours in front of an actual television set. Online video certainly is an interesting, high-growth market, but it’s not substituting television.
• Myth #4, Shift to Mobile TV: A great deal of hype has also been given to to mobile TV, although it has yet to take hold in any country other than Japan or South Korea. And even in those markets it has yet to find a viable business model since mobile TV is free and advertising CPMs run only 10% of the TV market rate.

As much as I enjoyed the report I was disappointed that it barely touched on the potential of targeted television advertising, perhaps since it’s a technology which has taken so long to be applied in the industry. Combing the mass audience of television with the audience targeting capabilities of the internet would immortalize television, not that it’s going away anytime soon.

Last night CBS attracted an average of 106.5 million viewers during its transmission of Super Bowl XLIV, which effectively made it the most watched broadcast program of all time. While the Super Bowl has always been a major broadcast event in the United States its average audience has been growing steadily at around 2.3% since 2000. Last night’s broadcast was the final push, that finally broke the 100 million viewer mark.

This super-sized audience has always commands high ad prices since it offers marketers unique access to a concentrated mass audience. CBS reported that prices floated between $2.5 and $3.0 million, although certain slots went higher. If an average of $30 million is assumed, the effective CPM last night would have been $28.17.

Since CPMs for global viewers during broadcast primetime float around $15, the Super Bowl CPM would be roughly double. This would also be roughly parallel to relationship between broadcast primetime and the Super Bowl within the Household CPM, as reported by the TV Bureau of Advertising.

This is the 100% price premium is the value given by the market towards being able to reach over a third of the U.S. population at exactly the same time. This unique opportunity affords a brand message to effectively become common culture within the span of 30 seconds. Now, whether or not an advertisers use this time wisely is another matter. You can be the judge; see all the spots from last night here at Ad Age.

Last night the final season of Lost began with a double episode premiere, garnering an average of 12.1 million viewers. The good news is that this is about 6% more than last season’s premiere, and it’s also the first time since Season 2 that a premiere has a larger audience than its precursor. The better news is that the audience growth over-indexed in the 18-49 demographic, attracting more than 10% than last season.

The problem is that comparing yesterday’s performance with last season is somewhat lax since new audience lows were marked for both the premiere and finale last year. The 11th episode of last season also garnered the smallest audience of any first-run Lost episode to date: 10.8 million during the 11th episode. This was a far cry from the performance of first half of Season 2 when Lost was attracting over 20 million viewers.

As I mentioned in a posting back in March 2009, Lost has “lost” its audience due to its complicated serialized plotline, a weakness which was exacerbated by a long hiatus in the middle of Season 3 as well the 2007 writer’s strike which delayed and shortened Season 4. Luckily this season seems to be free from any similar debilitations so the series might end up growing its audience over the course of its last season, which if it were to happen might yield a rumored Lost spin-0ff.

The NHL’s Stanley Cup and NBA Finals just finished up. The Stanley Cup had a strong series which went the full seven games; its ratings 19% above last year’s. The NBA Finals this year were so-so, especially in comparison to last year’s match up between the Lakers and the Celtics. Unsurprisingly the Finals draw 4% less viewers this year.

Over the long term the NBA Finals and the World Series have lost viewers. The Superbowl has had the opposite trend. This year’s Superbowl between the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers had a record 98.7 million viewers. The PGA’s U.S. Open and the Stanley Cup seem to have maintained their total viewers, but I couldn’t get earlier historical data to confirm this.

Taking into account population growth gives a somewhat different story. Since 1968 the U.S. population has grown from 200 to 300 million, and U.S. TV households have doubled  to 114 million. Based on household ratings (percentage of the total TV household population) the Superbowl has just maintained its viewership levels.

It would be interesting to compare unique viewership between the Superbowl and these other sporting events that extend over various days and in certain cases like the Stanley Cup, various networks (this year’s Stanley Cup was broadcast by NBC and Versus). The total reach would probably not reach the Superbowl audience but it would certainly paint a different picture in terms of total audience size.