The Mexican National Team, colloquially known as “El Tri,” is beloved by many Latino consumers across North America.
It also seems that NBCUniversal’s Telemundo network loves “El Tri” — both the men’s and women’s teams — so much that it has teamed with América Móvil, the Mexican telecom giant led by CEO Daniel Hajj Aboumrad and owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, in submitting a bid Thursday (9/28) for U.S. broadcast rights, and another bid for the rest of the world, for no less than two World Cup cycles.
In a statement released Thursday morning, the companies’ strategic and commercial alliance that allows them “to present an offer that will provide substantial value to Mexican soccer.”
Neither a dollar nor peso amount was disclosed by Telemundo.
The proposal submitted for the U.S. market includes the rights across all media platforms, while the other includes global digital media rights, excluding the U.S.
The bid is in addition to the revenue that the Mexican Football Federation could receive from the licensing of media rights on other platforms in the rest of the world, such as broadcast and cable television.
Marcos Santana, President of Telemundo International, “We are committed to continue expanding our world-class sports portfolio, in addition to our exclusive U.S. Spanish-language television rights to the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. We look forward to leveraging the extensive expertise of NBCUniversal and Telemundo Deportes to bring the Mexico National team to a level never seen before in the U.S. Hispanic market.”
For the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and international friendlies, English and Spanish-language U.S. broadcast rights for “El Tri” were held by Univision Deportes and ESPN.
However, in a blockbuster arrangement announced by the FIFA Executive Committee announced in October 2011, the governing body ratified the bids from FOX and Telemundo for the TV rights for the period 2015-2022.
FOX grabbed U.S. English-language TV and radio rights, while Telemundo snagged U.S. Spanish-language TV rights. The Andres Cantor-led Fútbol de Primera Radio acquired the Spanish-language radio rights.
This includes the 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2022 FIFA World Cup, the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and other FIFA events.
