The resolution was known this Monday morning and quickly became
one of the news of the day
.
Through a resolution published in the Official Gazette, the Government declared the friendly matches scheduled with the National Soccer Team for the coming days as an event of relevant interest and for this reason they would be broadcast live on Public TV.
Progress will be made, the chief of staff,
Agustín Rossi
, would later clarify on the radio , even if an agreement is not reached with the company that paid for the rights to broadcast Messi and company.
The Government's argument, in
a revival of what was the expensive Football for All campaign
, during a large part of Cristina Kirchner's two terms as president, is that all Argentines deserve to see their National Team for free, even when
this implies breaching private contracts
and exposing themselves to possible lawsuits.
It is a half truth.
Or rather, 10% or 15%.
Because?
It is estimated that 9 out of 10 inhabitants who watch television in the country do so through cable and the penetration of the TyC Sports signal, the channel that has the rights to broadcast those matches, is almost complete.
It is a signal, moreover, that does not require an extra payment from the subscriber;
that is to say, it is not a coded channel or that implies a particular pay per view to see the Selection.
Enter the combo that customers pay monthly along with dozens of other channels.
That is to say, always according to calculations of the TV market, the population that watches TV and does not do so through cable is a minority, below 20%.
Even
or there are no guarantees that this neglected sector can watch it on Public TV
, without cable, because the network of air channels does not have a reach throughout the country.
The investment in antennas and decoders that had been made during Cristina's administration was not continued and today, many of those who watch the official channel also do so through cable.
Doubts about the "business"
Does the government then seek to appropriate a business that was in private hands to obtain economic benefit?
Neither.
Because, as Rossi himself clarified, La Rosada is willing to pay a part of those rights that until now belong to the Torneos company (former Torneos y Competencias, owned by DirecTV and the Nofal family, among other shareholders).
And the revenue from advertising, in general, does not cover those costs.
And why do they pay the rights then in Tournaments?
Because they recover the money by reselling the matches, for example, to channels like TyC Sports, which in turn do their business by charging cable operators, like Cablevisión or Telecentro, for their signal.
If TyC Sports (linked to Grupo Clarín) has the matches of the National Team, it is more probable that the cable operators want to have it on their grid.
Advertising revenue from this type of channel is generally marginal.
At the time, the market was well aware of the difficulties that Telecentro had in expanding precisely because it lacked the best sports channels.
The question, obviously, is why, if there is not much greater extra penetration in homes and it is not a very profitable business for the Government a priori, why does it decide to move forward?
Most likely for the same reason that he continued for years with Soccer for All, despite the fact that it was always a loss:
campaign and propaganda
.
Or, to qualify the story, another deficit public service.
look too
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