Before the expected end of Marbella Vice, Ibai Llanos had an important announcement prepared for his audience. However, the news turned out to be a bombshell ; not only for his audience, but also for all the football fans in Spain. Ibai bought the rights to the Copa América 2021 , the continental football competition that is currently being held in Brazil. Yes, you read that right. Obviously, will broadcast the tournament matches for free through its Twitch channel . Of course, only in Spain.
It is worth mentioning that Ibai will not be alone in this new adventure. The acquisition of the rights to the Copa América was done in collaboration with Kosmos, a company chaired by Gerard Piqué (FC Barcelona footballer). The streamer himself acknowledges that this movement could be strange, especially since his image is generally associated with video games. However, he also comments that his most recent projects involve the creation of content outside of games, but without losing the line of entertainment. After all, soccer still belongs to this millionaire industry.
“The Copa América 2021 will be seen with an image, and completely free of charge in Spain , on my Twitch channel,” Ibai announced in his video. How it happened? The same streamer explains that the rights to the Copa América had not been acquired in Spain —except for Televisión de Galicia and TV3 de Cataluña. Of course, this opened the door for them to negotiate them without the usual obstacles found in other countries.
Here it is important to clarify the following: they only bought the transmission rights for Spain. What does it mean? That only people who reside in this country will be able to enjoy the games through the Ibai Twitch channel. The above has a simple explanation: soccer, like many other sporting and entertainment events, is distributed regionally. In other words, in each country rights are bought under different contracts and conditions —even prices—. In Mexico, for example, the rights to the Copa América belong to SKY Sports.
Why was no television company in Spain interested in the Copa América before Ibai? Each one will have their reasons, although one cause could be the uncertainty that surrounded the tournament just a few weeks ago . The original plan of CONMEBOL (South American Football Confederation) was to celebrate it in a shared headquarters between Argentina and Colombia, however, the health situation, coupled with the protests in the second country, complicated everything. The Copa América 2021 was about to be canceled before moving to Brazil.
As mentioned above, Kosmos, the company led by Gerard Piqué, helped Ibai get the rights. Kosmos is no stranger to sporting events, because among their product portfolio we can also find the Davis Cup – which they will promote during broadcasts. In addition, they recently started as a company representing athletes. Dominic Thiem, the Austrian tennis player, signed for Kosmos this week. Ibai's adventure with the Copa América will begin on Saturday (Friday in Latin America) with the transmission of Argentina vs. Uruguay at 02:00 from Spain, a game that he himself will narrate.
