A virtual banner about the journalists who covered the Super classic for ESPN gave the scoop: a few hours before River-Boca in the Monumental it was announced that the Argentine Super Cup would go “exclusively” through the platform Star+. For the first time, a streaming platform would be the only media with images of a final for an AFA trophy. At that time – February 25 – no one noticed the announcement. Nor was it about the contracts: the organizer of the match between the champions of the Argentine Cup and the league of the previous year is the producer Torneoswhich signed an agreement to sell TV rights with ESPN Sur. The agreement is valid until 2030 and was signed in September 2020. Another football and, above all, another country.
At the signing of the agreement, Star+ did not exist. ESPN owned linear signals, which integrated its sports offering into the air channels. Later the merger of Disney -global controller of ESPN- with Fox and the entry of the Mickey Mouse company into the football pack. Fox Sports Premium would be renamed as ESPN Premium and all the matches of the Professional League would be distributed between both coded screens. In all this time, the Argentine Super Cup had just one edition: 2022, which they disputed Boca (league winner) and Paraná Board of Trustees (monarch of the Argentine Cup). The xeneizes won 3-0 and the match could be seen on ESPN Premium. And Star + subscribers could also enjoy it. There were no legal problems of any kind. Nor, controversies.
The difference between that antecedent and what happened between River y Students in Córdoba it has to do with the “exclusive screen”. ESPN Sur, a subsidiary of Disney, decided to use the right acquired in 2020 to broadcast the match only through Star +. Given the communication of that determination -which occurred in the Superclásico- phone calls followed among the executives of the companies involved. The AFA, which sensed a problem and did not like that, in theory, access to an official final was restricted for a cup, remained expectant. It wouldn’t take long for him to enter the scene.
Last Monday, communications broke out between the protagonists of the novel. “On March 11, the company Torneos y Competencias SA was formally notified to arbitrate the means for an adequate distribution of the match, under warning in case of non-compliance to take legal action,” details the AFA in a statement published today, Thursday the 14th. Tournaments, for his part, sent him a three-page letter to ESPN.
The document bears the signature of Gustavo Isaac, Company President. There, the production company reminds the owner of the rights to the match that broadcasting the match exclusively on Star+ would constitute a “breach of contract” y “it would violate his spirit”. “The match is a final of Argentine football, of an official AFA tournament. Limit its distribution in this way, excluding it from regular paid television services – which already include various ESPN signals, including ESPN Premium, would degrade the relevance that such a comparison has“, both for the fans in general, the biases of both clubs in particular and the AFA as the original owner,” he continues. Tournaments in his letter. And he reminds ESPN of a specific clause in the contract signed in 2020 that establishes that to transfer the acquired rights to another company, the prior consent of Torneos is required.
There was also an official statement from the production company: “Given the information released about the broadcast of the Argentine Super Cup, Torneos – holder of the audiovisual rights – informs that said meeting cannot be broadcast exclusively on the Star+ platform. The agreement with ESPN Sur SRL provides for the broadcast of the match on linear signals available from cable operators, as has happened in previous editions.” The conflict escalated, but the party’s TV remained on Star+.
ESPN Sur responded the same day of the game. And he reminded the producer that his claim had been “timeless” (the party’s communication campaign had already been launched on February 25 on the occasion of the Superclásico) and It could no longer be modified. given that “fans had been invited to subscribe to Star+.” In this sense, the company understood that “opening” the game to any of the ESPN signals, including ESPN Premium, would have been “a fraud”, since all previous communication had revolved around exclusivity on Star+. And what doing so would have meant “damage to Disney’s credibility”.
The exchange of letters ended with the broadcast the match and what happened during the 90 minutes that the meeting lasted: the technical failures, the constant cuts and the complaints on social networks from the fans who were doing catharsis. “Star+ is shameful, paying for this service is theft. Free Football works better and it’s free. And they broke the balls to make it exclusive,” said user @AguirregarayTW. “#star+ fourth class service, it is constantly cut off, impossible to watch River vs Estudiantes #ESPNenStarPlus disaster, but they charge on time,” Jujeño journalist Marcelo Reynaga complained. “Terrible service from #Star. Hateful to see a game that is called every 5 seconds,” @feriturralde protested. In response to this newspaper’s query, in the streaming company they denied that the difficulties had been due to an excess of concurrent users. That is, the number of subscribers who wanted to see the match between River and Estudiantes They didn’t crash the system. The first conjectures point to a bandwidth problem and there are those who do not rule out possible sabotage. The technical investigation into what happened has just begun.
Complaints from users reached the AFA itself: President Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia was not at the awards ceremony in Córdoba, but from the offices of the Ezeiza property they were very aware of what happened during the broadcast of the match. “We did the right thing, we sent the note to Torneos and warned them if they moved forward”said a source from the mother house of Argentine football.
The entity’s statement, released this Thursday, provides more information: “The information was submitted to the AFA Legal Management with the purpose of evaluating the corresponding actions in order to defend the rights of the House and Argentine football in its entirety. ”. A data: According to market data, the football pack had 1.73 million subscribers in January of this year. The Star + numbers are unknown, but if in Argentina they exceed that figure, The match would have reached more homes through streaming than through traditional linearity. Numbers aside, ESPN claims to have done what was stipulated in the contract, which still has five years left. The story will continue…
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