Mexico-based Caliente TV announced it is developing a direct-to-consumer streaming service for its viewers in the country through ViewLift, the U.S.-based digital services provider. The service will stream Caliente TV’s linear channel as well as exclusive live broadcasts of soccer matches in Liga MX, France’s Ligue 1 and the UEFA Champions League, as well as other sporting events with sizeable interest in Mexico.
Among its offerings for Mexican customers, the new platform will have all 300-plus Ligue 1 matches, 109 Champions League games (including an exclusive Wednesday window) and the Champions League final.
Speed was of the essence in the deal, as the way sports rights are granted in Mexico differs greatly from the U.S. Whereas broadcasting—and now streaming rights—are granted by sports leagues in the U.S., individual teams are their own grantors in Mexico.
Last September, as Caliente TV was launching, the network acquired rights to Xolos de Tijuana (Club Tijuana) and Gallos Blancos de Querétaro in Liga MX and their sister clubs in Liga MX Femenil, as well as Santos Laguna and Atlas in the women’s league. Those agreements included streaming rights, giving their fans a long-awaited platform to use on the go.
Francisco Pazmiño, the network’s head of programming, acquisitions and DTC, said ViewLift’s experience with multiple sports won out over other companies, including those within the home country. “The U.S. is a much more mature (streaming) market than Latin America,” Pazmiño said in a video interview. “In this case, we wanted to make sure that the quality of the service was there. The fact that (ViewLift) has experience doing multiple sports simultaneously and had the good contacts with the providers were some of the reasons why we were looking at them as the right partner.”
ViewLift has proven to be an agile provider for clients aiming to launch streaming platforms relatively quickly, most recently with several NHL clients. That’s something founder Rick Allen has taken pride in.
“We have felt that the disruption in live sports distribution globally really calls for digital vendors who can stand up DTC services very fast and then customize on top of that,” Allen said in a video interview. “And most platforms either can’t move that fast, or if they can, they don’t customize at all. … We felt the market required the ability to do both.”
In August, the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers announced the launch of a DTC product provided by ViewLift. That deal was signed five weeks after the team broke free from Bally Sports Florida and moved most of its games to local Scripps affiliates in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area. ViewLift, based in New York, had previously partnered with the Vegas Golden Knights and Washington Capitals for their over-the-top streamers, and works directly with the NHL on solutions for teams that may be disrupted by RSN changes. (Ted Leonsis, the owner of the Capitals, is an investor in ViewLift.)
Caliente TV was launched in 2023 by Grupo Caliente, when the 108-year-old sports betting company decided to make a move into live sports broadcasting. While that brings to mind the 2022 launch of FanDuel TV in the U.S. (which originally began as horse racing channel TVG in 1999), Caliente TV doesn’t bring a heavy emphasis on betting to its content. “We might integrate a few things, odds and stats and that sort of thing, because we have people that are experienced accessing stats,” Pazmiño said. “But that in no way should distract the fact that we are a live sports offering that’s available for everyone.”
Caliente TV views itself as a disruptor in the sports media market, beating out more established players for high-profile competitions such as Champions League as proof. Even as the new kid in town, it promises high-quality content between game broadcasts and studio shows.
“We’re new in the market, but we are not inexperienced, because we have people that are very experienced working behind Caliente,” Pazmiño said. “You can see that in the shows that are, you know, brand new facilities that were built in Mexico City, facilities that were actually built for a digital era. We knew that we were going to launch an OTT platform, therefore we had to build a facility that was going to be made for that.”
The streaming service will be available on the web as well as Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and mobile platforms. In addition to the popular soccer leagues, Caliente TV will also stream Mexico’s Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (Professional American Football League) and Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional (National Professional Basketball League), which are both sponsored by corporate parent Grupo Caliente. The network also has exclusive rights to show Los Angeles Rams preseason games.
(This article has been updated in the eighth paragraph to clarify ViewLift’s work with the NHL.)
