GUADALAJARA, Mexico -- Chivas home games will be shown live via Chivas TV over the internet and through the Liga MX giant's mobile app, breaking the traditional TV model in Mexican football.
The club announced in May that it would not be renewing its contract with Mexican TV conglomerate Televisa and would be starting Chivas TV, but the full details were only revealed on Wednesday, in a presentation by Jose Luis Higuera, CEO of Grupo Omnilife-Chivas.
The cost of Chivas TV will be $148 US dollars per year (2,750 Mexican pesos), or $108 for those that sign up before July 14. For the upcoming Apertura 2016, a season pass will cost $54 for the early sign-up. Both options will feature all games, including postseason ones in case the team -- made up only of Mexican players -- makes the playoffs.
"Only Chivas could do this: Changing the way of watching football," said Higuera in the presentation in Mexico City.
The Guadalajara-based club will offer a range of other packets on Chivas TV, which will begin transmission on July 1. Individual games will be sold depending on their importance, with band A games costing $6.70, band B $10.80, band C $17.50 and the Super Clasico against Club America $27.00.
There will also be a special packet for $2.70 per month, allowing fans to watch games on delay, two hours after the final whistle has blown, with Higuera saying Chivas understand the "inequality" in Mexico.
"We are a club that entertains, wins and has fun," said Higuera. "These are prices that we believe are very accessible."
The stream showing Higuera's press conference was Chivas TV's first program, but the stream was intermittent, sparking memes on social networks and concern about the club's ability to produce internet-only content in a country in which 44.4 percent of the population use the internet and only 34.4 percent of homes have internet, according to a 2015 government study.
"Failures at the point of origin," read the message on the Chivas TV page at one point during Higuera's presentation. "We are re-establishing the signal."
Higuera accepted there are challenges for the app-based and internet platform, but stressed that "Internet penetration in Mexico is already at 60 percent and increasing in mobile [appliances]."
"We know that we will suffer," added Higuera. "It is a Chivas-type challenge and we ask for patience from our fans. There is no team in Mexico that has done this before."
There will also be worries about the price of the content, with the minimum legal daily wage in the state of Jalisco -- of which Guadalajara is the capital -- less than $4, although Higuera encouraged family and friends to get together to pitch in.
Higuera denied that the club was offered a deal of $40 million USD for its TV rights and stressed that the commercial value of the Chivas brand outstripped the value of offers the club received from TV companies, indicating the Rebano Sagrado were one of the top five best-supported clubs in the world.
"We received €14 million Euros for television [rights] and QPR in England €90.8 million," said Higuera. "In Mexico, we feel they don't value us."
In the United States, Chivas have two years left on a TV deal with Univision, confirmed Higuera, but fans will be able to purchase Chivas TV's content, as well as pregame and postgame commentary for $9.99 per month.
A minimum of two megabytes per second to watch the games live will be required, said Higuera, and Chivas TV will include Under-20 and Under-17 games, as well as special reports and documentaries, according to Higuera.
The first Liga MX game to be shown on Chivas TV will be on July 23 against Monterrey in the Estadio Omnilife.