Azteca Deportes (currently known as TV Azteca Deportes) is the sports division of Mexico's

TV Azteca TV Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V. is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as some local operators. It owns two nationa ...

television network. It produces sports events and regular sports programming aired on the

Azteca Uno Azteca Uno (previously Azteca Trece), is a Mexican national broadcast television network owned by TV Azteca, with more than 100 transmitters across the country. Azteca Uno broadcasts on virtual channel 1. Azteca Uno programming is available in ...

and

Azteca 7 Azteca 7 (also called El Siete) is a Mexican network owned by TV Azteca, with more than 100 main transmitters all over Mexico. Azteca 7 is available on all cable and satellite systems. A substantial portion of their purchased programming include ...

networks in Mexico and now on

Estrella TV Estrella TV () is an American Spanish-language broadcast television network owned by the Estrella Media subsidiary of HPS Investment Partners, LLC. The network primarily features programs, the vast majority of which are produced by the network ...

in the United States.

History

Azteca's predecessor,

Imevisión The Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión (''Mexican Television Institute''), known commercially as Imevisión after 1985, was a state broadcaster and federal government agency of Mexico. At its height, Imevisión programmed two national networks ...

, had carried some sports programming, notably including the

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

and

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

and the

1992 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 64 , athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women) , events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines) , opening = 8 February 1992 , closing = 23 February 1992 , opened_by = President François Mitterrand , cauldron ...

, as well as the

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

and 1990 FIFA World Cups. Azteca increased its sports programming upon privatization in 1993.

Current programs

Liga MX

TV Azteca owns

Mazatlán F.C. Mazatlán Futbol Club is a Mexican professional football team based in Mazatlán, Sinaloa currently playing in Liga MX. The club was established in June 2020 after the Monarcas Morelia franchise announced that it would be moving to the city of ...

, and carries the home matches of this teams as well as

Club Puebla Club Puebla, formerly Puebla F.C. is a Mexican professional football club based in the city of Puebla, competing in the Liga MX. Known as ''La Franja'' ("The Striped Ones"), the team shirt features a diagonal stripe (traditionally blue on white ...

, Atlas F.C.,

FC Juárez Fútbol Club Juárez, commonly referred to as ''Bravos de Juárez'', or simply as ''Juárez'', is a Mexican football club based in the city of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua that currently competes in Liga MX. History Futbol Club Juárez was f ...

Club Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Necaxa, is a Mexican professional football club in Liga MX based in the city of Aguascalientes. It plays in the Estadio Victoria. History Foundation (Light and Power Comp ...

, Querétaro F.C. and

C.D. Guadalajara Club Deportivo Guadalajara (); often simply known as Guadalajara () and their nickname ''Chivas'' (), is a Mexican professional football club based in Zapopan, Jalisco. Guadalajara is one of the ten founding members of the Mexican First Divi ...

. In some cases, the rights are shared with

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

and

Televisa Grupo Televisa is a Mexican multimedia mass media company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April 2021, Televisa and Univision Communications announce ...

International soccer

TV Azteca also holds part or all of the Mexican rights to the FIFA Confederations Cup, Copa América,

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

, and the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

. In addition, Azteca and competitor

share the rights to the games of the Mexico national football team through 2018.

American football

Azteca 7 has carried NFL games for years. During the regular season, it airs a whip-around program similar to

NFL RedZone ''NFL RedZone'' (stylized as ''NFL RedZone from NFL Network'') is an American sports television channel owned and operated by NFL Network since 2009. As a "special" game-day exclusive, it broadcasts on Sundays during the NFL regular season from ...

called ''Ritual NFL'', which covers the early afternoon games. It also airs the Super Bowl and AFC playoff games.

Boxing and lucha libre

''Box Azteca'', featuring major fights, airs regularly on Azteca 7. ''Lucha Azteca'' debuted in 2016, featuring the Liga Élite promotion and revived in 2019 with a new deal with

Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide Antonio Peña Promotions, S.A. de C.V. doing business as, d/b/a Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide is a Mexican Lucha Libre (professional wrestling) professional wrestling promotion, promotion based in Mexico City, Mexico. Commonly referred to as simply ...

Studio shows

The primary studio show produced by Azteca Deportes is the weekly show DeporTV, which airs on Sundays and predates TV Azteca itself by nearly 20 years. Other studio shows, such as ''Los Protagonistas'', have also aired over the years on Azteca 13 and Azteca 7.

Former sports programs

Sports that Azteca has carried in the past but to which it does not currently hold the rights include NBA basketball,

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

hockey and the Olympic Games (whose rights in 2016 were held by

América Móvil América Móvil is a Mexican telecommunications corporation headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. It is the 7th largest mobile network operator in terms of equity subscribers and one of the largest corporations in the world. América Móvil is a ...

and subleased to public broadcasters).

Notable personalities

Play-by-play

Christian Martinoli Christian Octavio Martinoli Curi (born 15 October 1975) is an Argentine-born Mexican sports journalist and sports commentator who currently works for Azteca Deportes. His father is from Argentina and his mother from Mexico. He is also of Itali ...

* Antonio Rosique * Carlos Guerrero * Jesús Joel Fuentes * Enrique Garay * César Castro * Rodolfo Vargas * Rafael Ayala

Analysts

Luis García Postigo Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

* Luis Roberto Alves * Jorge Campos * David Medrano * Francisco Chacón * Joaquín Castillo * Julio César Chávez * Eduardo Lamazón * Gerardo Velazquez de León

Anchors

* Inés Sainz * Alfredo Domínguez Muro * Hugo Enrique Kiese

Reporters

* Álvaro López Sordo * Omar Villarreal * Juan Carlos Báez * Tania Ventimilla * Jorge Pinto * Ashley González * Pablo de Rubens

References

{{reflist

External links

Azteca Deportes website
TV Azteca Sports divisions of TV channels Sports television in Mexico