Mexico’s telecommunications regulator, the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, has said that Televisa and América Movil can retain existing ‘exclusive’ rights deals for major sporting events despite having blocked the media companies from striking such agreements in the future.
The watchdog had been considering whether to force the media companies to share exclusive rights covered by previously-agreed deals and had ordered the companies to deliver details of their current exclusive rights deals before deciding on whether to apply the new rules on a retrospective basis.
According to news website Etcetera, the IFT’s decision means that Televisa will still be able to broadcast exclusive coverage of the Fifa World Cup national football team tournament in 2014, 2018 and 2022, while América Movil, owned by Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, can retain exclusive rights for the 2016 summer Olympic Games.
Separately, both companies have been barred from acquiring exclusive coverage of national football team matches and the final games of Mexican football’s top division campaign.
Earlier this year, the IFT said that the country’s two dominant media companies would also be forced to share their infrastructure with competitors under the new legislation, which still has to be approved by the national congress.