The Paraguayan government is in negotiations with Argentinian media group Grupo Clarín to buy Paraguayan pay-television operator Cablevisión, which owns the rights to Paraguay’s top-tier football league via its sports broadcaster Teledeportes.
Paraguayan sports minister Paulino Reichardt said the main reason the government wanted to acquire Cablevisión was so that it could gain control of the rights for the Primera División and put coverage of the league on free-to-air television.
“I think it is very important for the people to enjoy the matches every Sunday, every weekend,” Reichardt said. “Football is the passion of all Paraguayans but a lot of the time the less fortunate do not have the opportunity to watch the games. If we can agree a deal we would see that football really is for everyone.”
Reichardt did not say which free-to-air channel would be used to show the matches.
Mario Esquivel, the president of state telco Compañía Paraguaya de Telecomunicaciones, is heading the team responsible for the government’s acquisition proposal. As part of the package the government would also acquire Cablevisión’s internet company Internet Fibertel and cable-television channel Unicanal.
The acquisition is widely seen as a political move by Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, with presidential elections in Paraguay set to take place in 2013.
The move mirrors the situation in Argentina when the Argentinian government launched its ‘fútbol para todos’ (‘football for everyone’) scheme in 2009. The Argentinian government acquired the media rights for the domestic league until 2018-19 and put the matches on free-to-air television. It has made huge losses on the rights since the contract began two seasons ago. The scheme was credited with helping president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner get re-elected in 2011 by the widest margin since the country’s return to democracy in 1983.