FUTBOL DE PRIMERA OBTAINS EXCLUSIVE SPANISH LANGUAGE RADIO BROADCAST RIGHTS TO WORLD CUP SOCCER

Highly-contested rights to serve audience which spends $282 billion

NEW YORK (August 22, 2000) Futbol de Primera (FDP) and FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) announced today that FDP has been awarded the exclusive U.S. Spanish language radio broadcast rights for the next two World Cups -- Korea/Japan 2002 and Germany 2006.

The exclusive broadcast rights -- the most hotly-pursued in Spanish language radio -- allow FDP to present a wide variety of Spanish language soccer programming to American Hispanic households with an estimated $282 billion in purchasing power this year, explained FDP principals Andres Cantor and Alejandro Gutman. As part of an agreement with FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, FDP also obtained the domestic Spanish language radio broadcast rights to these other tournaments:

• The 2001 Youth World Cup in Argentina in addition to future Youth World Cups in 2003 and 2005;
• The 2001 Under-17 World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago in addition to future U-17 World Cups in 2003 and 2005;
• 2003 Women's World Cup;
• 2001, 2003 and 2005 Confederations Cups;
• All preliminary and final draws for these events.

“Futbol de Primera has shown its leadership and great track record in the world of soccer in the United States not only through its radio programming but also through its creation of the 'Player of the Year' award which jointly with its commercial activities are aimed at the promotion of our beloved sport. I salute this pioneer company and I welcome the official broadcaster of our FIFA competitions," said FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

"We are honored that FIFA has elected Futbol de Primera as an official radio rights holder in the United States. Our commitment to soccer will not stop here, this is only the beginning of a relationship between our company, the Hispanic community, Spanish language radio stations and commercial affiliates," said Cantor.

"As a principal of Futbol de Primera, it is a great pleasure to work with such a respected institution as FIFA. We are proud to be the first company to obtain directly from FIFA the prized U.S. Spanish language radio broadcast rights to bring all FIFA-sanctioned matches to the largest audience of soccer fans in the United States," said Gutman. "We are certain broadcasters and advertisers will recognize the value of this market."

FDP, a company based in Miami and San Francisco, is dedicated solely to the sport of soccer. For 12 years, FDP has distributed radio soccer programs to over 40 stations in the United States and Central America. FDP also has the exclusive Spanish language radio rights to broadcast the World Cup qualifying matches of the United States, Paraguayan and Bolivian national teams.

In addition, FDP is the creator of the "Honda Player of the Year," awarded annually to the best player of the U.S. national team. Aside from radio programming, FDP produces top-of-line soccer related books, magazines, events and expositions.

Andres Cantor, one of the two principals of FDP, is one of the most famous on-air soccer personalities/announcers in the United States. He will be announcing soccer matches in English for NBC during the upcoming Sydney Olympics in September. His on-air signature call of "GOOOOAAL" became famous and passionately chronicled during his play-by-play coverage of World Cup USA '94. The wildly popular chant positioned the sport of soccer in the forefront of an enthusiastic American audience. The call can now be heard on the Telemundo Television Network during soccer coverage and has also been featured in television commercials and on the Late Show with David Letterman. Renowned San Francisco-based soccer journalist and commentator Alejandro Gutman is Cantor's partner at FDP.

According to research by FDP:

• The estimated purchasing power for the Hispanic market in the United States for the year 2000 is $282,481,689,065.
• The Hispanic community will account for 11.4 percent of the population in the year 2000 and 16.3 percent by the year 2020. Hispanics represent the most rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population. From 1989 to 2000, the Hispanic population increased from 23.7 million to 37 million, a 56 percent increase.
• Expenditures on advertising to Hispanics grew from $730 million in 1992 to $1.7 billion in 1998, a compound annual growth rate of 15 percent. Although Hispanic consumers represent approximately 7 percent of U.S. consumer spending, advertising targeting Hispanics represents only 1 percent of total advertising expenditures.
• There are approximately 474 Spanish language radio stations, which constitutes only 4.6 percent of all commercial radio stations n the United States, although the Hispanic population comprises approximately 11 percent of the U.S. population. The introduction of the FDP Radio Network in conjunction with FIFA-based soccer tournaments year-round will move advertising expenditures closer towards parity with Hispanic consumer spending in the United States. As a result, approximately 26 percent of Hispanic advertising expenditures in 1998, the year of the last World Cup, were directed to radio, a substantially higher percentage than radio's overall share of national advertising expenditures.