Peruvian rivals strike new rights deals

Peruvian football clubs Alianza Lima and Sporting Cristal have struck new rights deals with Media Networks Latin America, a division of telecommunications company Telefónica, and pay-television broadcaster Gol TV, respectively.

The broadcasters will show the teams’ games in the country’s top league, the Copa Movistar Torneo Descentralizado.

According to the RPP news website, Alianza Lima’s renewal with Media Networks is worth $4 million (€3 million) per year and is the most lucrative rights deal agreed by a club in Peruvian football history. The length of the agreement was not disclosed, but the deal will run until at least the end of 2013 and there are options to extend the contract.

Gol TV’s deal with Sporting Cristal is worth $2.5 million per year and will run for eight years, from 2013 to 2020, according to the Gestión news website.

Gol TV acquired the rights after Sporting Cristal and Media Networks decided mutually to curtail their rights deal two years before the contract was due to expire, at the end of 2014.

However, the length of Sporting Cristal’s deal with Gol TV could clash with plans announced last month by the Peruvian football federation, Federación Peruana de Fútbol, to centralise broadcast rights for the country’s top division from 2017.