America Movil delivers Sochi to Latin America via Claro Sports

A brand-new player in the Olympics game, America Movil is on hand in Sochi coordinating coverage for every country in Latin America except Brazil — totaling 17 nations and a potential audience of nearly 100 million people. The Mexican telco, controlled by billionaire Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim, is also producing Olympics content for its own 24-hour cable channel in Mexico, Claro Sports, as well as for ClaroSports.com.

“We are putting a lot of content [on the Internet] because we believe that is very important to our [subscribers].” — America Movil’s Gustavo Ramirez Espana Beguerisse

“We own the rights for 17 countries from Mexico to Argentina,” says America Movil Sochi Producer Gustavo Ramirez Espana Beguerisse. “We are also producing our 24/7 channel Claro Sports, which a lot of countries and different states in Mexico are taking as their broadcast.”

America Movil is taking in four of OBS’s six MDS (multichannel-distribution service) feeds — a mix of various channels via an encrypted satellite subscription service — as well as OBS’s Olympic News Channel. Sublicensees throughout Latin America have the option of taking these MDS feeds directly or using the Claro Sports linear feed.

In addition, America Movil has made four MDS feeds available directly on ClaroSports.com. The company partnered with Deltatre to build out the streaming application for its Website.

“Since we are a telco, the Internet service is huge for us,” says Beguerisse. “We are putting a lot of content there because we believe that is very important to our [subscribers].”

America Movil has a team of 55 on-site in Sochi, but the bulk of production is completed at the company’s broadcast center in Mexico City. America Movil is sending six feeds back to Mexico via fiber, where the content is recorded and packaged for Claro Sports.

“Mexico is our main operations center,” Beguerisse adds. “For the other countries, it depends on what those broadcasters are capable of. They can take the MDS satellite feeds directly, or they can take the Claro feed.”

In Sochi, Movil has established commentary positions at the Iceberg Skating Palace and Fisht Olympic Stadium (for Opening and Closing Ceremonies). In addition, seven ENG teams are on hand, along with six Apple Final Cut Pro NLE systems. Movil also has its full team of photographers and writers on hand.

While Sochi marks America Movil’s Olympics debut, the company has a much larger, higher profile on the horizon, as it also holds the rights to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games in the same 17 Latin American nations, where the Games represent an infinitely larger platform.

“We have the rights for Rio as well, and we are going to make something very big there,” says Beguerisse. “It’s going to be a nice challenge, but this is a great learning opportunity for us.”