Copa Toyota Libertadores Final Sets Another Record-Breaking Nielsen Rating for Spanish-Language Cable Network Fox Sports En Espanol.

LOS ANGELES -- Impressions and Household Numbers Are Up from Last Year's Telecast

Building on the past success of its Copa Toyota Libertadores soccer coverage, Fox Sports en Espanol outperformed last year's telecast by delivering a 6.5 Nielsen household coverage rating for the July 1 final match between Colombian underdog Once Caldas and defending champion Boca Juniors of Argentina. This year's bigger rating resulted in a 16% increase in household coverage rating over last year's championship final telecast, which weighed in with a 5.6 household coverage rating.

Thanks to Fox Sports en Espanol's solid distribution growth over the past year, household impressions were up 68%, a significant increase over last year's final telecast. This year, 193,000 households tuned in to watch Once Caldas's stunning victory, compared to the 115,000 households that tuned in during the July 2, 2003 telecast of Boca's win over Santos of Brazil, according to Nielsen Media Research.

"Our household numbers clearly demonstrate that our audience thirsts for good, quality, competitive Latin American soccer," stated Tom Maney, Senior Vice President of Advertising Sales for Fox Sports en Espanol. "Advertisers recognize this too, and see the relative value of our soccer properties compared to other sports programming being offered on Spanish-language cable television. We expect to build on this year's success and sell out our entire inventory for Copa Toyota Libertadores in 2005."

While Mexican league soccer enjoys a large following in the U.S., the Copa Toyota Libertadores in 2004 proved its enormous appeal as one of the most prestigious and revered soccer competitions in the world, due to the compelling level of competitive play from top Latin American club teams that participate. The Copa Libertadores final captured more households, 193,000 versus 153,000, than Galavision's Mexican League semifinal on June 2, 2004, and also nabbed 33% more households than Galavision's Mexican League quarterfinal on May 27, 2004 that reached 145,000 households.

Mexican team Santos Laguna and Club America competed in this year's Libertadores competition and reached the Round of 16 before being eliminated. Next year's competition will feature, for the first time ever, berths for three Mexican club teams, who will be determined in January 2005 in the InterLiga qualifying tournament to be televised exclusively live for the second consecutive year on Fox Sports en Espanol.

Fox Sports en Espanol is available through affiliated cable systems and through DIRECTV and Dish Network satellite providers. Fox Sports en Espanol is distributed by Fox Cable Networks Group and operated by Fox Pan American Sports LLC, an international sports programming and production entity jointly owned by Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, Fox Sports International (owned by Fox Entertainment Group (NYSE:FOX) and News Corporation (NYSE:NWS)), and Liberty Media Corporation. For programming information about Fox Sports en Espanol visit fse.yahoo.com.