The case of Caliente TV: from advertising bets to broadcasting the Champions League

The platform broadcasts matches from the women’s MX league of the Santos, Atlas and Gallos teams; while in the men’s league it has the rights to Querétaro and Xolos de Tijuana —a team also owned by Hank Rhon—. It also offers a debate bar and sports news. But now it has decided to expand the spectrum of its possibilities with European soccer matches and new broadcast windows.

Caliente TV has partnered with ViewLift, a global digital services provider that includes NBC Universal, to create and develop its video streaming service to allow consumers to watch programming 24/7 and download the app on various systems: iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire TV, thereby ending the limitation of accessing content only through YouTube or linear pay TV channels.

“We want to provide a smooth, high-quality viewing experience,” ViewLift said in a press release.

Radamés Camargo, an analyst at the consulting firm The Ciu, considers Caliente TV’s proposal for streaming to be a disruptive model: integrating live sports broadcasts with bets to secure its niche audience, which in the medium term could help consolidate its first business, as well as the possibility of reaching other consumers.

“More and more people are betting on sports, whether it is scores or players. And although Caliente TV does not have so many exclusive licenses for sports content at the moment, we know that the intention is to acquire more sports rights,” said the expert.

Sports content has become the most relevant asset for platforms to attract users, where big streaming players such as Max, Disney, Amazon Prime and ViX, seek to acquire greater broadcast rights to maintain added value within their competitors. Sports leagues are one of the main reasons why consumers decide to purchase a subscription. Although this generates greater complexities to access various football leagues.

The Bango Latam Consumer Survey consultancy highlights that in Mexico, 30% of subscribers to video-on-demand platforms pay a specific bill for sports content, making it one of the most eager markets in the region.

Debuts with problems

The start of the Champions League season also marked the entry of Caliente TV as a new video streaming platform. The company made sure to capture the attention of users to join its debut with a promotional offer that allows free access to its entire range of content. But its debut was marred by technical problems.

Users on social media reported errors in the broadcast of the match, where the image of the header was shown for several minutes.

Expansión requested comment from Caliente TV on the failures in the transmission of the game, but no response had been received by the time the text was published.

Camargo said that one of the main challenges of streaming is the live broadcast of a sport, because users expect the game to be enjoyed without failures or interruptions. Therefore, he said that video-on-demand companies must invest to strengthen the technological part that allows them to guarantee users a good experience.

Caliente TV has not been the only streaming service to have had problems during its broadcast. ViX is another app that has been criticized by consumers for having problems on its platform during a live sporting event.

“A failure in transmission can cost streaming dearly in terms of loss of trust and loyalty. I think that this is something that companies still need to perfect in a market niche that is positioned as one of the most attractive for any player or company that is not necessarily a content company,” warned Camargo.