Andres Cantor lands at Netflix for FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027. Kicking off with the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 Final Draw on Dec. 11 and continuing throughout the tournament beginning June 24, 2027, Cantor will bring four decades of experience to the booth. The move reflects X factors driving the wider U.S. media and advertising markets. “Andrés Cantor’s move to Netflix reflects a broader shift in the sports media landscape. Sports talent is increasingly following distribution, and distribution is increasingly moving toward streaming. Andrés is one of the best-know voices in U.S. soccer, and his move reflects how seriously platforms like Netflix are approaching sports content”, Jaime Cardenas, CEO, Founder, AC&M Group., tells Portada.
1. An Investment in Netflix’s Leading Position in the Hispanic Market…
Netflix has a particularly strong leadership among U.S. Hispanic audiences. The data below tells it all:
- U.S. Hispanic consumers are the most active streaming segment in the nation. Roughly 70% of Hispanic Americans maintain a current Netflix subscription, compared to 61% of White Americans.
- Viewership Share: Nielsen’s Diverse Intelligence Series highlights that Netflix controls 13% of all television viewing hours among U.S. Hispanics. (Compared to approximately 8% for the overall U.S. population. This makes it the top-performing standalone streaming platform for the Hispanic demographic, outpacing competitors like Disney+ and general streaming alternatives.
… and Meet the Need for Authentic Representation
According to Nielsen’s data, Hispanic audiences actively seek out and reward culturally relevant programming. Andres Cantor’s move to Netflix for the 2027 Women’s Soccer World Cup precisely fulfills the Hispanic audience need for accurate representation. “For me, it’s not only my livelihood, but it’s my life,” Cantor says. “I breathe soccer seven days a week, 24 hours a day. I’m always watching a game. I always have this passion, and it transcends when I get to call the games in either language.”
2. Andres Cantor – Netflix: Cross-Cultural Appeal
Major brand marketers are surprised by how their FIFA 2026 Men’s Soccer World Cup activations transcended beyond their Hispanic specific efforts.
“It was surprising to see how engaged the general market audience was and how strong consumer engagement can be through the love of the sport,” Ricardo Aspiazu, SVP, Creative & Brand Design, Verizon, said at last week’s Portada Live NYC event (photo).
Netflix’s FIFA Women’s World Cup coverage will feature English and Spanish-language broadcasts in the United States, and English and French-language broadcasts in Canada. By signing on a sportscaster who is native in Spanish, Netflix ‘s Fifa 2027 Women’s World Cup broadcasts will increase their cross-cultural appeal. Cantor has brought his passion to some of the biggest moments in the history of the women’s game. He points to Carli Lloyd’s hat trick against Japan in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final — including her unforgettable goal from midfield — as one of the greatest moments he has ever call
3. Andres Cantor – Netflix: an AVOD Play
Netflix’s signing on Andres Cantor also is a move to increase Netflix’s Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD) revenues. While Netflix does not publicly release the precise number of U.S. Hispanic subscribers on its ad-supported (AVOD) tier, industry data shows 45% of U.S. Netflix households subscribe to the ad tier. Estimates place the combined subscriber count for the U.S. and Canada at around 89.1 million members. The ad-tier (AVOD) is particularly popular among U.S. Hispanics as major audience insights from Nielsen and Netflix Advertising highlight this group as one of the platform’s fastest-growing and most heavily engaged commercial segments.
“The move by Netflix to lure Cantor from Telemundo/NBCU is brilliant. Women’s sport is on the rise. Advertising in women’s sport is up 120% this year and will continue to grow for the next decade. Having Andres Cantor legitimizes Netflix as a real soccer platform and women’s soccer is a growth sport worldwide.”
4. A Bet on the Growth of Brand Soccer Investment in the United States
“The move by Netflix to lure Cantor from Telemundo/NBCU is brilliant. Women’s sport is on the rise. Advertising in women’s sport is up 120% this year and will continue to grow for the next decade. Having Andres Cantor legitimizes Netflix as a real soccer platform and women’s soccer is a growth sport worldwide,” Jose Villafañe, Founder and CEO, AudioTreeHouse , tells Portada.
Soccer marketing and advertising is also becoming an independent marketing practice. As Justin Bennett, Director, Sports Investment & Partnerships, WPP Media, said during last week’s Portada LIve NYC event, “an overall sports strategy is an outdated way of thinking about the sports space. Every sport requires its own strategy.”
According to the Portada Insights Report: The Transformative Impact of Soccer on U.S. Sports Marketing brand-driven soccer investment is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 11.9% between 2024 and 2030 to US $4.61 billion in 2030 (see table below). Netflix signing on Andres Cantor for the FIFA 2027 Women’s Soccer World Cup in Brazil is a validation of the growth of the sport from an advertising and marketing investment perspective.
| Category | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advertising | 1,099.82 | 978.83 | 2,077.46 | 1,130.53 | 1,243.57 | 1,367.92 | 2,374.96 |
| Team Sponsorships | 641.50 | 705.65 | 776.22 | 853.84 | 939.22 | 1,033.14 | 1,136.46 |
| League Sponsorships | 385.40 | 423.94 | 466.33 | 512.97 | 564.26 | 620.69 | 682.76 |
| Player Endorsements | 108.90 | 119.79 | 131.77 | 144.95 | 159.44 | 175.38 | 192.92 |
| FIFA U.S. Allocated Sponsorships | 302.96 | 302.96 | 302.96 | 222.17 | 222.17 | 222.17 | 222.17 |
| TOTAL Brand-Driven Soccer Investment | 2,538.58 | 2,531.17 | 3,754.74 | 2,864.45 | 3,128.67 | 3,419.31 | 4,609.27 |
Source: Portada Insights Report The Transformative Impact of Soccer on U.S. Sports Marketing
5. Andres Cantor – Netflix: 2027 FIFA Women’s Soccer World Cup Viewership is Expected to be Very High
The popularity of soccer in the U.S. was buoyed by last summer’s FIFA 2026 Men’s Soccer World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Broadcast and streaming records were shuttered (see table below). Very high audience ratings for the 2027 FIFA Women’s Soccer World Cup in Brazil are certainly in the cards, particularly if it is taken into account that until last summer the FIFA 2015 Women’s World Cup Final was the most watched soccer game in the U.S. Another factor, supporting the popularity of the upcoming 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, is that women’s soccer, particularly youth soccer is in some ways, more popular than men’s soccer in the U.S.
| Match | English | Spanish |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 Women’s World Cup Final | 25.4 million (Fox) | 1.27 million (Telemundo, NBC Universal) |
| 2022 Men’s World Cup Final | 16.8 (Fox) | 9.0 (Telemundo) |
| 2026 World Cup: Mexico vs. England | 21.7 (Fox, Tubi) | 23.2 (Telemundo, Peacock) |
| 2026 World Cup: U.S. vs. Belgium | 33.1 (Fox, Tubi) | 12.9 (Telemundo, Peacock) |
| 2026 World Cup Final: Spain – Argentina | 38.9 (Fox, Tubi) | 23.9, 12.9 (Telemundo, Peacock) |
| Knicks – Spurs, Game 5 | 24.5 (ABC/ESPN, including Spanish-language audience) | Included |
| 2026 Super Bowl | 125.6 (NBC/Peacock) | 3.3 million (Telemundo) |
SOURCE: Nielsen Big Data+ Panel, L+SD, match window for TAD; Adobe Analytics NOTES: In million. For more audience comparisons including NFL games. Check out: Taking a deeper dive into Spanish-language Super Bowl advertising.
6. Spanish-Language Rights Are Being Bundled with English Rights
Netflix’s ownership of the 2027 FIFA Women’s Soccer World Cup rights showcases a change in the way FIFA sells media rights. FIFA’s potential decision to package English- and Spanish-language rights together in the United States could become one of the most significant developments for the broadcast/streaming rights market. For the 2026 edition, FIFA recognizes Fox/Tubi as its English-language U.S. partner, Telemundo/Peacock as the Spanish-language broadcaster, and Televisa/Vix as the broadcaster for Mexico. If the U.S. rights for 2030 and 2034 are sold as a single bilingual package, their value will no longer depend solely on reaching two audiences. Instead, it will be driven by the opportunity to commercialize both audiences as one unified marketplace. For agencies and brands operating across Mexico, the United States, and Hispanic audiences, this shift could reshape media planning, replacing language silos with integrated packages built around affinity, context, geography, content, and consumer behavior.
As platforms such as YouTube or Netflix or Disney enter the competition, cultural, linguistic and contextual targeting could become just as valuable as distribution itself.
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DOWNLOAD: Portada Insights Report: The Transformative Impact of Soccer on U.S. Sports Marketing (free registration required)
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