Today, Liga MX team Club Leon, announced that they will start broadcasting their home matches live on Telemundo in the USA, Fox Sports (Latin America) and MedioTiempo.com via the internet. No monetary figures have been announced on this three year deal, but I would assume that it is more than the reported 2.5 million per year TV Azteca was offering.
What this means to US fans
We finally get to watch the home games of one of the more entertaining teams in the Liga MX! Plus, we get another chance to view Telemundo’s Liga MX broadcast (now they have Chivas and Leon home games). Thankfully, Univision was unable to get its hands on Leon home matches, I say thankfully, because if it did, it would have buried the games in Univison Deportes Network, which is still unavailable to most Americans.
MedtioTiempo.com will be transmitting live through their website, first time they have done this. It is unclear if USA viewers will have access to this, in MedioTiempo’s press release it stated that the Club Leon matches will be shown live and available anywhere. However, it is unclear if “available anywhere” means anywhere in the world, or anywhere in Mexico. Either way, we get to watch the games live on Telemundo.
What this means to Mexican soccer and the Liga MX
Club Leon took on TV Azteca and won. Leon was “assigned” to TV Azteca as part of the shared monopoly that Televisa and TV Azteca have over the Liga MX. Now Leon has proven that a team can break through this monopoly and seek higher profits elsewhere. If other teams start following Leon’s lead, it could mean higher revenues for Liga MX teams, which in turn means the ability to hire better players, and thus have an overall better Liga MX and fan experience.
However, we have to wait and see how the FEMEXFUT and Liga MX will react to this. Will it try to do everything in its power to destroy Leon and send it back to the Ascenso MX? We shall wait and see.
