Liga MX football team Club Deportivo Guadalajara has struck a new agreement that will see coverage of its home games return to pay-television operator Televisa.
In what was seen as a surprise announcement on Saturday, the club, commonly known as Chivas, said it had reached a deal with Televisa that will run through to the end of the 2019 Apertura tournament.
Televisa will broadcast Chivas’ games through its pay-television channel TDN, along with in Latin America through the Las Estrellas service and on-demand platform Blim. The deal covers Mexico, as well as markets in Central America and the Caribbean, and commenced with Chivas’ 3-2 LigaMX win over Puebla on Saturday.
The deal includes rights to LigaMX and CopaMX games. It comes after Chivas made waves in the Mexican media market by last year launching an in-house streaming platform entitled Chivas TV.
Chivas TV launched in July, exploiting the rights to all of the club’s home games from the 2016 Apertura campaign. The club had partnered with Televisa since 1994 but opted to end the relationship in order to develop an in-house platform.