América Móvil Obtains Transmission Rights to Olympics 2018-2024
América Móvil SAB (AMOV, AMX.MX), the telecommunications company controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, said Thursday that it has acquired transmission rights for much of Latin America to the Olympic games from 2018 to 2024.
The agreement with the International Olympic Committee gives América Móvil rights for broadcast, pay TV systems and digital platforms to the summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2020 and Paris in 2024, the winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea in 2018 and Beijing in 2022, and to the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires in 2018 and Lausanne, Switzerland in 2020.
Exclusive rights cover Spanish-speaking Latin America for broadcast and digital platforms, while for pay TV the rights are non-exclusive in Mexico, Central America and the Dominican Republic. The rights to the Youth Olympics are also non-exclusive.
América Móvil, Latin America's largest telecommunications company, operates wireless and fixed-line services including cable television across the region, but is barred from offering television in Mexico given unit Telmex's dominant position in the fixed-line market. Grupo Televisa SAB is the dominant broadcaster and pay TV company in Mexico.
Televisa and rival TV Azteca SAB didn't air the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after they failed to reach an agreement to acquire the rights from América Móvil. Those games were shown in Mexico on two government-owned broadcast television channels, on pay TV systems and online via América Móvil's Claro Sports website.
--Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 30, 2017 17:41 ET (22:41 GMT)