Pan-regional pay-television broadcaster ESPN has unveiled a multi-platform, TV everywhere plan ahead of its coverage of the 2016 Olympic Games in the Latin America region.
The RapidTVNews website said that as a part of ESPN's rebranding strategy, which started at the end of the summer, ESPN has moved all its channels to high definition and will offer them through its ESPN Play streaming platform.
ESPN now has five HD channels across Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. They are: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPN Plus and ESPN Extra.
The entire portfolio will also be available live via ESPN Play, with the broadcaster outlining plans for over 600 hours of live broadcasting from next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, covering all competitions, the opening and the closing ceremonies.
ESPN acquired rights across Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America for the 2014 winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 summer Olympics under a deal struck in January 2014. ESPN bought non-exclusive pay-television and digital rights from América Móvil, the Mexican telecommunications company owned by multi-billionaire Carlos Slim.
The deal covers Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.