At present, state broadcaster Canal 7 shows the weekly Friday night league match, which it simulcasts with pay-channel TyC Sports. But TyC recently announced that from next season, starting in August, the Friday match would be broadcast exclusively on pay-television.
Clarín’s monopoly over domestic league television rights has been criticised by senior government officials, who say the group’s contracts with the AFA are an abuse of a dominant position. Clarín and the Torneos y Competencias agency, in which Liberty Media holds a stake, own Televisión Satelital Codificada, which holds exclusive AFA rights through to 2013-14.
Clarín also controls the country’s two largest cable operators, CableVisión and Multicanal, while TyC owns the TyC Sports and TyC Max pay-television sports channels, which show all 10 weekly league matches on pay and pay-per-view.
For more details see the forthcoming issue of TV Sports Markets.