How Tatari Helped Clients Meet Their Goals By Being Exposed to a Massive TV Audience - Without Overpaying for It

Most of the time, when we write about a big sporting event like the NFL, MLB, or NBA, we lead with the numbers our clients put up: the lift, the response rates, the incremental conversions. The 2026 World Cup was a little different. This wasn't a story about performance metrics. It was a story about access. Access to one of the largest TV audiences in a decade, and how you get in front of this massive television audience in the most cost-efficient, brand-safe way possible.

The 2026 World Cup didn't just draw well. It rivaled the one live sports institution Americans reliably show up for — the NFL. The July 6 U.S. vs. Belgium match averaged a combined 50.1 million viewers across Fox and Telemundo, edging out the 47.4 million average for January's NFL conference championship games. Fox's share alone was 37.2 million viewers; the most-watched soccer (or fútbol) telecast in U.S. history and the network's most-watched non-NFL broadcast since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. The entire round of 16 averaged 14.5 million viewers on Fox, up 216% from 2022.

Even after the U.S. and Mexico were knocked out, the audience stayed glued to their televisions. Spain's semifinal win over France was the most-watched men's semifinal ever on English-language U.S. TV, and the Spain–Argentina final topped them all: 38.9 million viewers on Fox — now the most-watched soccer telecast in U.S. history and the most-watched World Cup final ever in the U.S. Not to mention another 23.9 million on Telemundo and Peacock, the most-watched Spanish-language soccer broadcast on record, for roughly 62.8 million viewers combined - more on that below.

For the last month, this was appointment television at a scale almost nothing else in the U.S. can touch. Full credit to Fox and Telemundo: they built and delivered an audience that almost nothing else on American television can match. Which is precisely why getting in was both valuable and competitive.

Several Ways to Score the Valuable Inventory

There were several paths to reach this audience. Programmatic was one option. Buying direct was another. And around the edges there were fractional opportunities through providers like DirecTV and Spectrum — though those were limited. Fox offered some shoulder programming, but it was mostly highlights, replays, and original content, with no in-game units. NBC had live inventory, but pretty expensive Spanish-language only inventory.

The most valuable placements — in-game units on Fox — understandably commanded a premium. Early on, the packaging tended to bundle in-game inventory with sizable overall commitments, and in some cases additional spend, reflecting how much demand there was for a marquee, once-in-a-generation event. Many brands were happy to commit early to lock in their spot, and that's a perfectly reasonable call.

Our strategy was to be patient and take a more measured path on behalf of our clients.

Rather than committing too early to premium packages that bundled with non-World Cup inventory that we knew might not be the right fit for our clients given our historical dataset, we kept two priorities front and center: pricing that made sense for each brand, and the flexibility to buy individual in-game units. Throughout the lead-up, we stayed in close, constructive dialogue with Fox and kept our clients' genuine interest on the table — so that when the right terms materialized, we'd be ready to move quickly. That’s the benefit of having established, trusted direct relationships with publishers. 

While waiting until the last minute to secure inventory for premium events is understandably a risk, it also sometimes poses the opportunity to get in at more efficient pricing. This ended up being the case for the World Cup. Pricing settled, and the ability to buy one-off in-game units opened up. That was the window we'd been positioned for. We moved decisively — and because we'd done the groundwork with Fox, we were able to secure the inventory that aligned with our clients’ goals.

Tatari clients locked in in-game inventory inside premium matchups at pricing that made sense, without giving in to premiums. That included France and England group-stage games and round-of-32 matches involving Argentina, Portugal, Germany, Morocco, and Colombia, among others. Marquee, top-team matchups, at efficient prices. All told, six Tatari clients that were no strangers to embracing live sports secured 10-plus in-game units across the tournament. Same caliber of inventory, reached through timing, preparation, and a good working relationship with the seller. That's the job: put our clients in the best possible position and be ready when the moment is right.

Sports is a Universal Language

One nuance from this World Cup that advertisers should sit with: the audience didn't split cleanly by language. Roughly half of U.S. World Cup viewers watched at least part of a match in Spanish on Telemundo — even though only about 20% of the country is Hispanic. English speakers went to Telemundo for the atmosphere, the energy of the commentary (Andrés Cantor's "¡goooooool!" being the obvious draw), and fewer commercial interruptions. For anyone planning reach against this kind of event, "English-language" and "Spanish-language" are getting harder to treat as separate audiences.

And 2030 is already being planned.

The ink was barely dry on Spain's win before the race for the next one began. FIFA is expected to open bidding on U.S. rights for the 2030 tournament, which will be hosted across Morocco, Spain, and Portugal — with ESPN, Fox, Netflix, and Paramount all bidding. The event only gets bigger from here.

The lesson we're carrying forward is simple: when everyone rushes to overpay for certainty, there's real value in patience, leverage, and knowing the inventory will loosen. We'll be planning for 2030 the same way.


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