EconomyFinancialAmérica vs León: Fox Sports says it interrupted Claro...

América vs León: Fox Sports says it interrupted Claro Sports' signal to "avoid piracy"

The increasingly fierce fight over sports content has begun to affect match broadcasts. The latest example of this was the game between León against América, which was interrupted by Fox Sports on three occasions from the Claro Sports YouTube channel. This despite the fact that the platform owned by América Móvil has the rights to broadcast the Liga MX match.

“We are in Marca Claro and Claro Sports live completely free, here we do not charge and we will continue like this even if they want to knock us down,” said Claros Sports commentators when they managed to reestablish the match signal. Fox Sports put on the Claro Sports broadcast that the video had been interrupted due to a claim for “infringement of copyright.”

In a subsequent statement, Fox Sports Mexico explained that it cannot allow “the rights to be transmitted free of charge through YouTube or any other free platform, when there are subscribers who pay for this content.”

Claro Sports assured in a statement that, due to the actions adopted by Fox Sports in the Club León match against Club América, it is considering acting legally, since the company has a current license for transmission rights and commercial exploitation of Club León matches via the internet, including YouTube, as well as through other media.

Fox Sports responded that since the launch of FOX Sports Premium “it maintains a permanent monitoring of the different streaming platforms to identify and eradicate the improper transmission of content.”

“As part of these efforts, which seek to guarantee transmission quality and prevent piracy, last weekend more than forty sites were detected and disconnected that, without authorization and without rights ownership, transmitted part of our sports content on social networks. social, like F1, WWE and the Liga MX game between León vs América”.

Why did Fox Sports withdraw the broadcast of the game?

Víctor Manuel Frías, a partner at the Greenberg Traurig firm and an expert in economic competition issues, explains that this is not the first time that a sports broadcast has been stopped by another company. He recalled that in 2003 TV Azteca withdrew from NBC the retransmission of a game of the Jaguares de Chiapas, arguing that the company did not have the transmission rights. This situation ended in court.

In the case of Fox Sports, the expert explains that although both companies have transmission rights for the León team, “when there are disputes between the television networks, the one that is generating the transmission (because it has the rights), in this case Fox Sports removes it, ”says the analyst.

Fox Sports explained in its statement that “it has all the exclusive broadcast rights in all media in Mexico” of the matches of Club León and Club Pachuca. However, it recognizes three exceptions:

1. The transmission of the León and Pachuca games may be made through the Claro Sports channel or any sports channel owned by América Móvil on a non-exclusive basis and simultaneously with the transmission of Fox Sports (limited to a satellite television system in Mexico). .

2. The León and Pachuca teams have the non-exclusive and simultaneous right to sell the events through any digital and mobile platform owned by América Móvil in Latin America.

3. The León and Pachuca teams must ensure that the licensed rights are subject to access restrictions through entry barriers and that they are expressly prohibited from being transmitted free of charge by any means.

Can the transmission of a sports match be guaranteed?

The transmission of a Liga MX match depends entirely on the soccer teams, since they are the owners of those rights and the ones who sign the contracts with television stations and now also with streaming companies, so that their games are broadcast on different platforms.

In this sense, the expert points out that the only thing that can guarantee the transmission of a sports match is the contract and not the regulatory authorities such as the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) because the transmission agreements are the private property of the television teams. soccer.

However, what the regulatory entities, such as the IFT, can do is ensure compliance with the transmission rights contracts that the companies have to ensure that there continues to be a process of open competition between content companies. In the specific case of Fox Sports, the IFT is responsible for investigating the reasons that led the company to lower the broadcast of the match to determine if they are terms of the contract or if there was an abuse of broadcasting rights to avoid the competition process.

What about the hearings?

The advancement of technology has changed the business model of sports, especially its transmission, which is already affecting users worldwide.

For example, the Barcelona club, which does not have enough resources to sign players, is now betting on selling 25% of its transmission rights to an investment fund, which in turn could negotiate the percentage of its transmission rights. with the television networks.

This situation makes consumers the most affected and more so because “there is no general right of the audience to see a show in a democratic way. In other words, no authority can compel teams and companies to broadcast on certain signals, since sports are a privately owned show,” says the expert.

“Neither the IFT nor any competition body can do anything about this, and I am not aware of any international experience where any authority tells companies that they have to broadcast a game on open television because it is a cultural right. And if there were, it would be an expropriation, because it would be taking ownership of their show from the teams to make it a public thing,” Frías warned.

The specialist foresees that, as more platforms want to get the transmission rights of the matches, it is possible that the transmission interruptions will continue.

Fox Sports said that it is “available to engage in a frank and open dialogue” with Marca Claro to review the rights contracts that both companies have with the teams and “clarify any misunderstanding or difference that may exist in the ownership of the rights, for the good of our subscribers and the general public”.

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