In an age where technology has changed the way we consume content, live sports broadcasts remain a popular and exciting form of entertainment. Furthermore, with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting many professional and amateur sports, the importance has become even more apparent. Sports and entertainment in general have become the anchor that maintains television as an important medium even today.
For this reason, on this occasion I want to take advantage of the first anniversary of the youngest sports channel in Mexican programming to show the relevance of sport and how it is relatively easy to connect with audiences using it as an emotional vehicle. Right in January 2021, the Hi! Sports was released for restricted television in Mexico.
Since its launch, Hi! Sports has been a source of entertainment and excitement for sports lovers who are looking for new options and spaces. With its focus on developing sports such as Padel or Pickeball and with a target audience of 18 to 35 years old, Hi! Sports has been positioning itself as a serious option in the Mexican sports television industry.
According to reports from HR Ratings, Hi! Sports is reaching approximately 100,000 people daily and 2.5 to 2.8 million unique people per month. This audience growth has been impressive, with a monthly average of 34%. These numbers put this channel in competitive ranks against others such as TVC Deportes, ESPN 3, Fox 3, Claro Sports, AYM Sports, u-Beat and VSIN.
Obviously, the conjunction of talent and technical solutions has a lot to do with the consolidation of television projects, but one of the most important things I see in this is that the programming offer is different, as I mentioned before, having Padel events o Pickleball is something unusual on Mexican television, especially when it comes to sports that are booming in certain sectors of the population and that are the most likely to consume pay television. Not only that, broadcasts of Liga ExpansiónMX soccer, Liga Endesa basketball, NCAA programming, women’s volleyball, the French Cup, but that they have been able to complement with the most complete schedule on women’s soccer ever seen: “With tenis pontos” became the first TV program dedicated to the subject, and complemented with broadcasts of the Italian Women’s Serie A and derived content in various digital formats. In addition, this is complemented by other installments focused on women such as “Lenguaje de Mujeres” where the stories of various Mexican athletes are delved into.
Why can a sports channel have this kind of impact so quickly? It is not only for quality and the form of distribution. It is because, as they themselves say, “sports has the capacity to change the world” and they are in charge of connecting that passion with the audiences. Sport continues to be a safe bet to connect emotionally and give it that touch of passion that products and services don’t usually have. That’s why I want to congratulate Hi! Sports for its first year of life, because in addition to its growth, it is allowing us to see that sport, beyond the support in which it is distributed, continues to have these connectors with people and that is that in challenging human capacities, in beating the another, in overcoming and overcoming, one finds very deep archetypes of the human psyche and of what we know as civilization. There is a lot of human in the sport and that makes it powerful. That’s why I celebrate it, that’s why I congratulate you. Surely the road has not been easy, but without a doubt it is a sample of the power that sport has.
