Roku & Telemundo bags the multi-year telecast rights for Miss Universe
The Miss Universe Organization (MUO), the governing body of the annual Miss Universe competition, has recently unveiled its multi-year distribution agreements with The Roku Channel and Telemundo.
These partnerships aim to cater to the U.S. streaming and broadcast markets in English and Spanish. The 72nd Annual Finale is scheduled for November 18th.
ℹ️ Miss Universe is an annual international beauty pageant that began in 1952. It’s one of the most-watched beauty pageants worldwide, featuring contestants from around the globe.
The 2023 event will be held live in El Salvador. It will be produced by Sergio Alfaro’s LA-based production company, InventTV, along with Paula Shugart and Anne Jakrajutatip representing Miss Universe.
Amy Emmerich, the CEO of MUO, expressed her excitement about the organisation’s future with these new partnerships. She also highlighted the positive response from their broadcast partners.
However, it should be noted that earlier this year, plans were being considered to develop a reality show based on the Miss Universe competition in response to a decline in its viewership over the years.
The 71st Miss Universe event held in Israel and aired on Fox, recorded its lowest audience ever, with 2.7 million viewers. The viewership significantly dropped compared to the 6.2 million viewers who tuned in five years ago.
Roku Channel’s Debut Live Stream of Miss Universe
In January 2023, the 71st Miss Universe finale was streamed for the first time on The Roku Channel.
The event became the most streamed live program on The Roku Channel on its broadcast date, reaching millions of viewers during its broadcast weekend.
David Eilenberg, Head of Content at Roku Media, expressed his pleasure in extending their partnership with MUO and the success of live programming in a free streaming environment.
Even though Roku didn’t indicate the performance metrics of the event, in the announcement of Q1 2023 financial results, Roku reported growth in active accounts, reaching 71.6 million; this signifies an increase of 1.6 million users in just one quarter.
Additionally, the platform experienced a surge in usage, with an average of 3.9 hours of streaming per user, leading to 25.1 billion streaming hours, marking an increase of 1.2 billion from the previous quarter.
Miss Universe Finale Tops Ratings on Telemundo
Telemundo is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network. During the telecast, the finale secured the top spot as the #1 entertainment program in its Saturday night slot across broadcast and cable for adults.
It attracted an average of 875,000 viewers in the 18-49 age group and 2.4 million total viewers. Ronald Day, President of Entertainment and Content Strategy for Telemundo, expressed his excitement about bringing the competition live from El Salvador to their audience.
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