Online streaming of soccer matches gaining popularity

Soccer teams are migrating to online platforms and pay TV due to the increase in advertising rates, lower audience and unfavorable conditions offered by broadcasters.

"It shows that broadcasters are losing audience and soccer teams are starting to find other options to reach their audience," said Lester García, telecommunications expert of the ITESM.

García sees this as a sign of competition.

With these changes, Televisa and TV Azteca will lose advertisers linked to sports events, he added.

Gabriel Sosa Plata, telecommunications analyst, said the soccer teams have been affected by the contracts they have with broadcasters and that is why they are trying new platforms.

"I guess contractual conditions are not so favorable for teams, being subject to the interests of broadcasters has had an impact on their finances and even the quality of soccer," he explained.

In the past year, the average rating of soccer programs has fallen from 1.8 points in the fourth quarter of 2014 to 1.6 points in the same period of 2015, according to the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT).

In addition, the audience of open TV fell 18% while pay television increased 14%.

IFT figures indicate that in the last year the number of pay TV subscribers increased 13%, while the number of Internet users grew 15.7%, according to data from the Mexican Internet Association (Amipci).

Some Mexican soccer clubs are using the Internet as an additional platform or their only platform.

Recently, Chivas de Guadalajara announced its departure from Televisa and presented its website Chivas TV.

One of the options that soccer teams have is Fox Sports, which provides pay and internet TV, an option that the teams owned by Carlos Slim have tried. They also have Claro Sports and UnoTV, owned by Slim, with which teams like Chivas could reach a content transmission agreement.

Chivas is not the first soccer team to leave open TV. Pachuca has Tuzos TV, where fans can watch its matches, along with Claro Sports and Fox Sports.

León, also owned by Slim, broadcasts its matches on Claro Sports and the Internet.

In the United Kingdom, British Telecom (BT) provides services for sports teams.