Fox Corporation has acquired sports-centric streaming service Caliente TV, a streaming service that offers live athletic events in Mexico and Latin America.
The move was part of a broader play to acquire more live sports programming for its broadcast and cable channels and its forthcoming streaming service, Fox One. As part of the acquisition, Fox says it will launch a new pay TV channel in the United States and fold Caliente TV into its new streaming service.
“Fox‘s investment to acquire Caliente TV reflects our commitment to building a leading sports streaming business in Mexico with massive audience reach, a robust sports rights portfolio and an impressive roster of exclusive sports leagues and talent,” Carlos Martinez, the new Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Fox Latin America, said in a statement.
The purchase gives Fox more live sports rights for its domestic and Latin American operations, including soccer from six Liga MX Men’s Clubs and 10 Liga MX Women’s Clubs; the CONCACAF Champions Cup; the Premier League and the FA Cup; the UEFA Champions League; Ligue 1 France; Coppa Italia; the United Football League; the Big 10 Conference; NASCAR Mexico Series and World Enduruo Championship.
Some of those live sports rights will remain with other broadcasters in the United States for a while longer — the UEFA Champions League is offered by Paramount’s CBS Sports through 2030 — but Fox will hold broadcast and streaming privileges for its Latin American operations.
Other sports will be offered through Fox One, Caliente TV and a new pay TV channel that has yet to be named. It wasn’t clear if the new pay TV channel will operate in English or Spanish; Fox already has a cable channel called Fox Deportes, a sports-heavy network that also offers some news programming from Fox News Media.
Martinez will oversee a staff of around 350 employees, who will support Fox’s operations in Mexico and Central America. The network will compete with other U.S.-based broadcasters who operate channels and platforms in Latin America, including Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), the Walt Disney Company and Paramount.
