Tigo Sports is a

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

network operated by the telecommunications company

Tigo Millicom International Cellular SA is a Luxembourgish fixed line and mobile telecommunications services provider operating in Latin America operating under the Tigo brand. Its main shareholder is Xavier Niel, a French billionaire who owns 40% of ...

, dedicated exclusively to

sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

s. The brand was launched in February 2014 by Tigo Paraguay, and was later extanded to other Latin American countries.

History

Paraguay

The channel was launched on February 1, 2014, with the broadcast of Paraguayan football, basketball and rugby matches, which were broadcast exclusively by

Unicanal Unicanal is a Paraguayan digital television network owned and operated by Grupo JBB. Programming News ;Noticieros Unicanal * Notciero Unicanal Primera Edición * Noticiero Unicanal: Segunda Edición * Noticiero Central Unicanal * Síntesi ...

and by the Tigo Star Paraguay events channel. On April 30, 2015, Tigo Sports used the black ribbon in mourning, due to the death of sports journalist Gustavo Köhn, who died at the Camargo Cancer Center in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, due to colon cancer that he suffered in the last years. In February 2016, the Tigo Sports channels began to broadcast all their programming in a 16:9 aspect ratio. On June 6, 2018, representatives of Tigo Star Paraguay announced the launch of Tigo Sports+, a parallel backup signal for the main channel. On February 1, 2019, it was revealed that Tigo Sports acquired the rights to the

2019 Copa Sudamericana The 2019 Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana was the 18th edition of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana (also referred to as the ''Copa Sudamericana'', or ), South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. Ecuadorian club Independiente d ...

. And on June 14, 2020, it was revealed they acquired the rights to the Spanish

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

for the 2019/2020 season, up to 5 exclusive matches on the Tigo Sports and Tigo Sports + signal. In mid-2022 Tigo Sports 3 was released. The 3 channels broadcast Paraguayan

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

matches on Saturdays and Mondays,

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

on Wednesdays,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

on Thursdays, and

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

on Fridays.

Bolivia

Tigo Sports began its broadcasts in Bolivia on November 27, 2014, with the La Paz derby that was played at the

Hernando Siles Stadium Estadio Hernando Siles (), also known as Estadio Olímpico La Paz, is a multi-purpose stadium in La Paz, Bolivia. It is the country's largest stadium, with a capacity of 41,143 seats. It is named after Hernando Siles Reyes, the 31st President of ...

, between

The Strongest Club The Strongest is a Bolivian professional football club based in La Paz, that currently plays in the Bolivian Primera División. Founded in 1908, their team colours are yellow and black. Although they have a home ground, Estadio Rafael Me ...

and Bolívar, which was the event chosen for the launch of the first Bolivian channel specialized in sports. Minutes before the start of the match, company executives officially announced the beginning of the programming of Tigo Sports, a channel that broadcasts its signal through the cable operator Tigo Star, visible on channel 800 of the standard service, 900 in HD and on 8 in satellite service.

Guatemala

In April 2017, after the closure of channel 33 of Tigo Star Guatemala, Tigo Sports began its broadcasts in that country with the purchase of the transmission rights of the Guatemalan National Football League. In January 2020, Tigo Sports acquired the broadcast rights to

Club Comunicaciones Club Comunicaciones is an Argentina, Argentine sports club based in the Agronomía district of Buenos Aires. The association football, football team currently plays in Primera B Metropolitana, the regionalised third division of the Argentine fo ...

matches, however the matches continued on over-the-air television because the team belongs to the

Albavisión Albavisión (formerly Prolasa and Televideo Services) is a multinational media company based in Miami and owned by controversial Mexican-turned-Guatemalan businessman Remigio Ángel González, operating primarily in Spanish-speaking countries in ...

company that broadcasts its games on over-the-air channels, turning the team into the first team to be broadcast on both over-the-air and cable television.

References

{{Authority control Sports television networks Television stations in Costa Rica Television stations in Paraguay

History

Paraguay

Bolivia

Guatemala

See also

References