TV Azteca aims for home run with Mexican baseball
Details
Juan Fernandez Gonzalez
| 02 September 2017

TV Azteca and the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol (LMB) have reached a deal to air Mexico’s baseball competition on a free-to-air basis through to 2018.


Under the terms of the agreement, the FTA channel a+ will cover the Serie del Rey 2017 as well as the two championship and post-season tournaments scheduled for 2018.

According to Grupo Salinas, the parent company of TV Azteca, the deal follows a single agreement reached this year to broadcast the Juego de Estrellas, a mid-season game in which two national teams (one from the north of the country and one from the south) face each other.

“Thanks to TV Azteca and LMB efforts, baseball is back to free-to-air through the recently-launched a+,” said Enrique Domínguez, director of a+, a DTT-only channel released in March by the group.

The agreement is part of the strategy of Javier Salinas, president of the LMB, to increase the value of Mexican baseball as it was done with football’s Liga MX before. “Over 20 years later, baseball is to be delivered on a free-to-air basis to the more than 30 million Mexican fans,” said the LMB president.

The Serie del Rey live coverage starts on 5 September. For the 2018 championships, the TV Azteca network is to air three games per week as well as the entire play-offs and final rounds.