Traditionally the Spanish national squad has never built up passion among their fellow citizens, mainly because they have never obtained good results in important international competitions. And in this country, if a Spaniard does not win, the event itself does not inspire much passionate interest. Having said this, Spanish audiences in this World Cup are especially low compared to previous years because of the broadcasting arrangements.
The La Sexta channel came on the scene at the beginning of this year with very low coverage in homes. Faced with the challenge of making the Spanish population take up their signal, it decided to buy the broadcasting rights of the 2006 World Cup. No better way to move people than to place a juicy carrot before their noses! They paid what no other channel was prepared to pay, because no other channel was going to pay more than the revenue to be obtained from the sale of publicity. In the end, they were allotted the World Cup in the midst of heated debate, because many Spaniards were not going to be able to see Spain’s matches. Finally, agreement was reached with Cuatro, another channel with almost universal coverage. In this way, matches of general interest and those in which Spain played would be on the screens of almost all Spanish households. That was not the best solution to maximize audience in Spain.
What has been the outcome of all this? La Sexta sees it as an investment that is giving them a lot of visibility and, at the same time, speeding up the process of spreading their signal. By using such a unique event as the World Cup, they will most likely speed up to the maximum their presence in the Spanish home, which will allow them, after the World Cup, to compete on equal terms with the rest of the channels and obtain a slice of the advertising pie.
It seems that things are going well for them. Spain won 4-0 in its first match against Ukraine and the original scepticism has turned into unleashed passion. With almost ten million spectators, the opening match of the Spanish national squad has surpassed figures for the same match in the World Cup of 2002, in spite of the low audience data obtained up to now in the championship. We could well win the World Cup. If Fernando Alonso wins the F1 races, Barcelona, the Champions League, Nadal, the Roland Garros Tournament, why can’t such young players as Torres, Alonso, Fábregas and company win the World Cup? And in the meantime, La Sexta sees the number of Spaniards tuning onto their channel increasing day by day.
Jon Artolozaga, Strategic Resources Director, Initiative Madrid
Thanks for this and it was good to have the Spanish version as well for practice - let's hope that other Initiative Offices follow their example over the second half of the Tournament with both Spanish alternatives as Ecuador, Argentina etc are still in the competition. But also with French, German, Italian, Portuguese etc ?
Should La Sexta be concerned that the BBC completely messed up coverage of SAUDI ARABIA 0 SPAIN 1 which would have been my first choice [over UKRAINE 1 TUNISIA 0] kicking off at 15.00 Hours today ? Regrettably the BBC Interactive version could not be located on my Telewest Cable service via the Red button on my remote so I complained to both sources. The promised BBC Interactive option via my 10 Mb Broadband service carried a message that due to excess demand it was not available. But then they had the same message for UKRAINE 1 TUNISIA 0 ? Why the BBC could not start up BBC Three or Four instead is beyond me ?
As for the BBC Pundits promoting that TOGO 0 FRANCE 2 was a potential banana skin for Les Bleues when it was never going to be anything but a French Win. Dectech predicted 6.9% for a Togo win if at Home compared to 76.3% for France if Away before they sussed that both were in fact due to play at a Neutral Venue. Their reworked odds were 13% 25% [for the Draw ?] 62% ?
Our CAP2 system logged Thirty Four Scoring Opportunities for France of which Ten were Discarded as each not considered to be worth 0.043 [1/24th] Goal. Leaving a net Twenty Four or Seven more than the Official FIFA Match Statistics which gave France Nine Shots "On" Target out of 17 attempted ? From those 24 CAP2 says that Francxe "earned 4.35 Goals to average 0.18 Goal" so JP [the BBC One Commentator] claiming that France could have scored 5 or 6 Goals was only slightly over the top. But France should be averaging 0.33 Goal if they have serious aspirations of winning another World Cup in Germany.
Add in that Togo "earned just 0.95 Goal from Eighteen Scoring Opportunities to average 0.07 Goal after Five were Discarded" and the BBC Pundit's stance was shown up for what it was. Togo and Adebayor were never going to be a threat. Adebayor in particular because he spent far too much time on each flank to be a danger to the French Goal ?
Did Frank Ribery's Performance deserve the castigation given to him by Gary Lineker and other BBC Experts ? When Substituted CAP2 had given FR a 64% "Skill" factor [+4PP above his preset "Skill" BenchMark] and on a 0.98 "Effective Workload" meaning that he was [or should have been] Involved in One Key Incident every 61 Seconds [60/0.98] that the Ball had been "In Play". And just -2PP below his preset "Effective Workload" BenchMark. Add in that he attempted 14 Crosses when CAP2 had predicted 12 from which he was awarded a 64% "Crossing Skill" factor and this too was +4PP on his preset 60% CS BenchMark. CAP2 gave FR a 1+4:4+1 True Tackle Ratio meaning that he Won 1+4=5 but Lost 4+1=5 True Tackles when CAP2 had preset a 3:3 TT BenchMark. The +4 and +1 indicates that he Won 4 but Lost 1 True Tackle when facing his own Goal. And he Assisted Patrick Vieira's Goal and our more sophisticated appraisal suggested that he thoroughly deserved his place as a French Attacking Midfield and it should not be him who is replaced by Zinedine Zidane against Spain.
Posted by: Bob Copeman | 23 June 2006 at 11:21 PM
No Blog from Initiative Sweden in English and Swedish so "baa baa vita lam ha doo nugon ull" will have to suffice. I read that Sweden have an English Fitness Coach and another providing their Management with DVDs on every Competitor. Based on GERMANY 2 SWEDEN 0 should they get their cards ?
Our CAP2 system says that Germany "earned 4.95 Goals from 36 Scoring Opportunities to average 0.17 Goal" after Six [1H] Attempts were each Discarded as not worth 0.043 Goal. But still Four more than the FIFA Official Twenty Six. Sweden "earned 0.85 Goal from 13 Scoring Opportunities to average 0.10" [after Four 2H were Discarded]. And also Four more than the FIFA Official Five. So Germany "deserved to Win by a 4.1 Goal Margin" or +2.1 Goal more than the actual 2-0 Score Line.
And just where does this put England's Performance in SWEDEN 2 ENGLAND 2 watched by an average 14.4 Million up to 25 Million TV Audience depending on source just in the UK ?
Posted by: Bob Copeman | 24 June 2006 at 06:23 PM