| DSports | |
| Owner: | Vrio Corp. (Grupo Werthein) |
| Sister Channels: | DNews OnDirecTV |
| Language: | Spanish |
| Picture Format: | 1080i HDTV[1] (With possible rescale to 480i/576i) 2160p UHDTV |
| Area: | South America Caribbean |
| Former Names: | Canal 680 DirecTV Sports[2] |
DSports (formerly known as DirecTV Sports) is a Latin American sports subscription television channel owned by satellite provider Vrio Corp. and operated by Torneos. The network broadcasts and operates its feeds from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, and also broadcasts to parts of Caribbean, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. As Vrio's own channel, it is not offered by any other paid TV operator, except for its own on demand service DGO, which would later expand to Mexico and Brazil through their service.[3] [4] [5]
The sports channel was first launched in 2006 to coincide with the start of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and was launched under the name Mundial Total. Among the channel's features were the multichannel system, multi-camera and instant replays, all in panoramic format. Shortly afterwards, after airing content such as La Liga, Ligue 1 and some games from the Premier League were added to its schedule, which it would stop broadcasting for a few years, but would resume exclusively in 2013. The channel was known as Canal 680 before finally being called DirecTV Sports in July 2009, with the channel managing a set of alternative channels that were responsible for broadcasting several sporting rights simultaneously, such as football, tennis and basketball on channels 614, 615, 616, 617 and 618 in HD. From 2010 to 2011, it continued to show the past FIFA World Cups.
On May 19, 2019, DirecTV Venezuela ceased operations due to US sanctions against pro-Maduro TV channels Globovisión and PDVSA TV in 2019, with the channels requiring mandatory transmission imposed by the telecommunications commission of Venezuela, CONATEL, while the US sanctions simultaneously blocked the transmission of DirecTV channels in the region.[6]
On August 14, 2020, as a result of the 2019 sanctions against the channels, DirecTV Venezuela was sold to Chilean company Scale Capital. DirecTV Sports Venezuela was rebranded as SimpleTV Sports.[7] [8] [9]
On November 14, 2022, before the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the channel was rebranded to DSports with a new logo and presentation.[10]
List of events that can be viewed on DSports Networks: