{"id":138414,"date":"2026-07-10T07:38:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/in-any-language-english-speakers-are-tuning-into-world-cup-broadcasts-in-spanish\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T07:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:40:18","slug":"in-any-language-english-speakers-are-tuning-into-world-cup-broadcasts-in-spanish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/in-any-language-english-speakers-are-tuning-into-world-cup-broadcasts-in-spanish\/","title":{"rendered":"In any language: English speakers are tuning into World Cup broadcasts in Spanish"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Spectators
Spectators watch the opening match of the World Cup soccer tournament between Mexico and South Africa, Thursday, June 11, 2026, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. (AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Ashleigh Hallam teaches English as a second language at her local library in Indiana. Soccer is now teaching her Spanish as a second language.<\/p>\n

For her, this World Cup couldn’t make more sense.<\/p>\n

Hallam is among a sizable number of English-speaking people in the U.S. who are doing something these days that might be considered a bit surprising: They’re watching broadcasts of World Cup matches in Spanish on Telemundo,<\/a> even though they have little idea \u2014 or in some cases, no idea \u2014 what the announcers are saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t really understand everything they\u2019re saying on Telemundo because they\u2019re speaking in Spanish,\u201d Hallam said. \u201cBut you understand what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The math is simple. Census figures show that about 20% of the U.S. is Hispanic, yet Telemundo points to Nielsen ratings to show that roughly half the World Cup viewers in the U.S. have watched at least some portion of some matches in Spanish. Every match of the tournament has been available for U.S. viewers in English on Fox or FS1, on Telemundo or Universo in Spanish, and there are streaming options such as Fox One or Peacock.<\/p>\n

Among the reasons commonly cited by viewers who spoke with The Associated Press in recent days: A fascination with famed broadcaster Andr\u00e9s Cantor’s<\/a> \u201c\u00a1goooooool!\u201d call. Telemundo doesn’t cut away for commercials (as Fox does) during the much-maligned hydration breaks.<\/a> The broadcasts, some simply find, are more entertaining. And in other cases, it’s a cost-based decision: Peacock, which includes Telemundo, is lower-priced than Fox One.<\/p>\n

Soccer as a global language, transcending a limited vocabulary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jackson Braunius is a Michigan native who watched a U.S. game last week from a bar seat at a steakhouse in Miami Lakes, Florida. He said he speaks almost no Spanish \u2014 \u201cI know \u2018cerveza,\u2019\u201d he said, tapping his beer glass \u2014 but didn’t mind watching on Telemundo whatsoever.<\/p>\n

\u201cI figured out the science here,\u201d Braunius said. \u201cWhen they\u2019re not talking too loud, nothing is happening. When they get loud, there\u2019s a chance. When they get real loud, it\u2019s probably going to be a goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comedian Trevor Noah<\/a> has been hosting World Cup watch parties on YouTube. He’s made the switch to Spanish-language feeds, and the hydration break issue was a huge part of that decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing the players on the pitch discussing what\u2019s happening. You see which coach is more stressed. Some players are tapping each other on the back. This is part of the game,\u201d Noah said on one of his YouTube streams. \u201cI feel like when you cut to ads, you lose this \u2014 you lose the stress, you lose the joy, the anticipation. So, shout out again, Telemundo: Really, really amazing coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Telemundo is hearing the praise, and has thanked English-speakers \u2014 as well as Noah directly \u2014 for lauding its coverage.<\/p>\n

The good news for everyone is this: There seems to be more than enough viewers to go around right now. And the success of this tournament could lead to a bidding war for the 2030 World Cup, with some reporting the rights for English-speaking and Spanish-speaking television will be packaged together in that deal. That wasn’t the case for this World Cup.<\/p>\n

Fox Sports said that Monday night’s Belgium-U.S. match saw a peak viewership<\/a> total of around 41 million at one point, making it the \u201cmost-watched soccer telecast in U.S. history,\u201d the network said. In other words, the final U.S. game in this World Cup had more viewers than anything in this country since the Super Bowl \u2014 with at least 45 million viewers, on average, between Fox (33 million) and Telemundo (an estimated 12 million). The most recent Super Bowl drew an average of about 125 million viewers, according to Nielsen data.<\/p>\n

Anglophones become hooked on Telemundo<\/strong><\/p>\n

William Kennedy of Miami is married to a Colombian woman, whose native language is Spanish. He says he knows only enough Spanish to be able to order meals in restaurants. And yet, he finds himself often watching World Cup matches on Telemundo.<\/p>\n

If Colombia was on, the Kennedy house was watching Telemundo. If Colombia \u2014 which was ousted in penalty kicks by Switzerland on Tuesday \u2014 isn’t on, Kennedy finds himself usually making his way to Telemundo anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the American commentators are doing the game, I don\u2019t know what game they\u2019re watching. I just don\u2019t,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cI\u2019d rather get the excitement in Spanish because essentially what happens is they\u2019re talking, and then they\u2019re talking really, really fast, and then they\u2019re getting loud and your brain is just like, \u2018Oh, something\u2019s happening \u2014 even if I don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hallam \u2014 who finds the World Cup has been a great way to bond further with her Spanish-speaking students \u2014 only became a big soccer fan a few years ago, when her daughter decided she wanted to play in a recreational league for elementary kids.<\/a> The league needed coaches, so Hallam literally checked out a \u201ccoaching for dummies\u201d book and began teaching herself the game.<\/p>\n

She kept coaching her daughter all the way through high school. Now, she’s hooked on soccer and hooked on Spanish-speaking broadcasts \u2014 and plans to keep watching, even when the World Cup ends.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just very comforting,\u201d Hallam said. \u201cWe’re really enjoyed it and I hope we get to continue. The next World Cup, we\u2019re going to watch it just like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Lamy reported from Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Fans
Fans watch the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between the United States and Belgium, at a watch party at the Rockefeller Center fan village, Monday, July 6, 2026 in New York. (AP Photo\/Adam Gray)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Adam Gray)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spectators watch the opening match of the World Cup soccer tournament between Mexico and South Africa, Thursday, June 11, 2026, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. (AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura)(AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura) MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Ashleigh Hallam teaches English as a second language at her local library in Indiana. Soccer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":138415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-138414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138422,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138414\/revisions\/138422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138414"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=138414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}