Azteca Deportes (currently known as TV Azteca Deportes) is the sports division of Mexico's TV Azteca television network. It produces sports events and regular sports programming aired on the Azteca Uno and Azteca 7 networks in Mexico and now on Estrella TV in the United States.
Azteca's predecessor, Imevisión, had carried some sports programming, notably including the 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics and the 1992 Winter Olympics, as well as the 1986 and 1990 FIFA World Cups. Azteca increased its sports programming upon privatization in 1993.
TV Azteca owns Mazatlán F.C., and carries the home matches of this teams as well as Club Puebla, Atlas F.C., FC Juárez, Club Necaxa, Querétaro F.C. and C.D. Guadalajara. In some cases, the rights are shared with ESPN and Televisa.[1]
TV Azteca also holds part or all of the Mexican rights to the FIFA Confederations Cup, Copa América, CONCACAF Gold Cup, and the FIFA World Cup.
In addition, Azteca and competitor Televisa share the rights to the games of the Mexico national football team through 2018.[2]
In 2024, Azteca covering the American NWSL matches.
Azteca 7 has carried NFL games for years. During the regular season, it airs a whip-around program similar to NFL RedZone called Ritual NFL, which covers the early afternoon games. It also airs the Super Bowl and AFC playoff games.
Box Azteca, featuring major fights, airs regularly on Azteca 7. Lucha Azteca debuted in 2016, featuring the Liga Élite promotion and revived in 2019 with a new deal with Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide.[3]
The primary studio show produced by Azteca Deportes is the weekly show DeporTV, which airs on Sundays and predates TV Azteca itself by nearly 20 years. Other studio shows, such as Los Protagonistas, have also aired over the years on Azteca 13 and Azteca 7.
Sports that Azteca has carried in the past but to which it does not currently hold the rights include NBA basketball, NHL hockey and the Olympic Games (whose rights in 2016 were held by América Móvil and subleased to public broadcasters).[4]