Grupo Radiópolis will have exclusive radio broadcasting rights for the 64 matches of the World Cup in Qatar, which will take place in November and December of this year, which will be broadcast on the stations of W Radio, W Deportes, Los 40, La Ke Buena, as well as in more than 100 local stations in the country.
Thus, the company will become an alternative to access sports content at a time when streaming platforms have sought exclusivity for some of the matches in the sports fair, causing the fragmentation of sports content and making access more expensive.
So far, Sky, Televisa’s satellite television, and ViX, TelevisaUnivision’s streaming platform, will have the rights to the World Cup matches and to access both formats, users must pay a subscription.
Luis Maldonado Palomares, general director of Grupo Radiópolis, sees the Qatar World Cup as one of “the big bets” that the company has for this year, as it will allow it to exponentially increase its audience levels, due to the fact that its stations they will become a free option before streaming platforms and pay television.
“Undoubtedly, the rating and the income are considerable. There are many soccer fans who will have the opportunity to listen to it for free. We hope that this will give us a good rating, which will allow us to attract more companies that want to advertise”, details the general director in Interview with Expansion .
According to data from INRA, a company that investigates and measures radio and television audiences, Grupo Radiópolis’ station W Deportes is tuned in 73% on radio, while 16% on auto stereo and 5% on cell phones.
It also bets on digitization
The radio is not going to disappear, assures Luis Maldonado. In Mexico it is still one of the main means of communication for many people who have not yet entered the world of digitization. And although the pandemic changed the way of consuming content, it was not in a radical way since currently its stations, such as Los 40, continue to connect with younger audiences.
However, the director accepts that the broadcasting sector must make way for new formats, which are complementary. In other words, one more broadcasting business because the stations are still the ones that generate the most income thanks to the fact that some companies still want to advertise on the radio, although some are already beginning to prefer a digital format.
One of the steps that Grupo Radiópolis has taken in this direction is alliances with digital companies, such as Amazon and Google, to develop podcasts. From this synergy was born La Corneta , which is an extension of the homonymous program that is transmitted by the radio station Los 40 .
“It is content that is launching us into the digital market and has had a very good response. That is why we are now involved in several projects with different companies to produce more podcasts”, says Maldonado.
