The November sweeps found Univision’s KMEX-TV (Channel 34) dominating the ratings among L.A. stations, regardless of language. However, its sister station, KFTR-TV (Channel 46), delivered the most surprising numbers.

Owned and operated by Univision Communications, KFTR covers the L.A. market with Univision’s second network, TeleFutura, from facilities in Ontario. TeleFutura started with the aim of grabbing youth male Latinos, but data from the Nielsen Station Index for November tells another story.

TeleFutura’s strategy gave men a steady diet of sports programming, particularly soccer matches from the Mexican League. After proving their popularity, the games moved upstairs to the Univision network.

As a result, Telefutura’s fare consists of telenovela re-runs, movies dubbed from English, game shows and the ever-popular talk shows. It would seem this appeals mostly to nostalgia-seeking elderly viewers instead of youth. Indeed, the average primetime ratings from Nielsen show KFTR gaining a 0.9 rating among adults 18 to 34 years old, a 1.1 rating among the 18-49 group, and a 1.2 for the 25-54 segment. The numbers get bigger as the sample gets older.

Still, in the final demographic category, KFTR beat three English-language stations: KTLA-TV (Channel 5), KCAL-TV (Channel 9) and KCOP-TV (Channel 13).

The November numbers reflect “recent refinement to our counter programming strategy,” said Bert Medina, operating manager at the network. “TeleFutura is now uniquely positioned to become America’s No. 2 Spanish-language broadcast network in every demo and daypart.”