After it was circulated on social media that DirecTV would be the operator for the transmission of the first qualifying match between Peru and New Zealand, Gestión spoke with Manuel Rangel, Marketing Manager of the Peruvian Football Federation, to clarify the issue.
Who finally has the broadcasting rights for the first match of the qualifying round that will be held in New Zealand?
In the case of open signal, it is known that Latina has the broadcasting rights for the next World Cup in Russia 2018. However, for the Russia 2018 qualifiers, the company that has the rights is the ATV Group.
Regarding cable operators, it is known that for the Russia 2018 World Cup, DirecTV has the license; however, for the qualifiers, the broadcasting rights are held by Movistar Deportes.
The confusion arises when talking about the repechage matches since both the first leg and the second leg would not be considered part of the qualifiers or part of the World Cup itself. It is a phase after the qualifiers.
In response to this, Manuel Rangel said that up to this moment, the broadcasting rights are held by Media Network, so the match between Peru and New Zealand should be broadcasted by Movistar Deportes and, in the case of open signal, by ATV. Meanwhile, the repechage match to be played in New Zealand should be watched with the company that has the broadcasting rights in that country.
Sources in the sector confirmed that the return match between Peru and New Zealand, on November 15, will be broadcasted by Movistar Deportes on cable and ATV for open signal, while the match on November 10 (New Zealand vs Peru) is still "under negotiation".
The television network or operator that has the broadcasting rights in New Zealand is the Sky Sport network through its channels Sky Sport 1 NZ and SKY Go NZ.
So that the 32 million Peruvians can watch the match between New Zealand and Peru in Peru, in which Movistar is still negotiating, thus, Peru could either send a team to New Zealand or latch onto the signal from Sky Sport.
We tried to contact representatives from DirecTV who excused themselves from confirming or denying the information that was circulating on social media. "We have to wait for the version from the regional area", the source said.