The organizing committee of the 2023 Pan American (Pan Am) and Parapan American (ParaPan Am) Games have decided to make the event available on more free-to-air (FTA) channels in the host nation Chile after coming under fire for initially awarding exclusive rights to public-service broadcaster TVN.
As a result, different competitions from the quadrennial event can be seen on other FTA outlets in the country.
The Santiago 2023 Corporation, which announced the decision following a board meeting on Tuesday (December 20), will now launch a tender process to secure more broadcasters.
In a statement, the organizers said: "With the objective of guaranteeing the greatest dissemination of the Santiago 2023 Pan American and Parapan American Games, the board of directors of the Santiago 2023 Corporation unanimously agreed in its session the possibility that other FTA channels of Chile will join the broadcasts of the event.”
The awarding of exclusive rights to TVN was met with a backlash in Chile, particularly from rival Canal 13 which went to the National Economic Prosecutor's Office and the Comptroller General of the Republic to reverse the decision.
Following Santiago 2023’s announcement, Canal 13 said: "We declare our agreement with the measure taken by the board of directors since we believe that this will significantly increase the viewing of the games.
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By GlobalData“We will present our proposal within the requested deadlines to be able to access these rights, and thus continue demonstrating our commitment to broadcasting sporting events.”
In February, Mediapro, the Spanish production firm and media rights agency, was appointed as the host broadcaster of the 2023 Pan Am and ParaPan Am Games.
The deal will see all 57 disciplines in the Pan Am Games and 18 disciplines in the Parapan Am Games broadcast live.
In total, Mediapro will produce and distribute 1,900 hours of coverage for the summer sports events, 700 more than in 2019 when Lima, Peru, hosted the last edition of the games, for which Mediapro also had the host broadcast contract.
Mediapro’s broadcast signal will be distributed to broadcasters around the world that will be awarded rights through tenders by the Santiago 2023 Corporation and the Pan American Sports Organization, which represents the continent’s National Olympic Committees.
The Pan Am Games will run from October 20 to November 5 next year and the Parapan Am Games from November 17 to 26.
Nearly 9,000 athletes from 41 countries are expected to take part in the two events.
Santiago was named the host of the 2023 games in 2017.
