A major shift is coming to sports television in Costa Rica and across Central America. Fox Corporation, the global media giant behind the Fox brand, has acquired the programming and production operations of Tigo Sports in six Central American countries: Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama.
The new Fox channel is set to launch in May 2026, absorbing Tigo Sports’ content rights, production infrastructure, and on-air talent already familiar to Central American audiences. For everyday viewers, the change amounts to a rebrand with much larger ambitions behind it.
Tigo Sports will disappear from Costa Rican screens, most likely after the 2026 World Cup concludes in July, and Fox will step into its place, using Tigo’s existing cable infrastructure as its entry point into the market. The timing is deliberate. Tigo Sports currently holds the rights to all 104 matches of the 2026 World Cup in Costa Rica, with 32 matches to air on open television through Teletica Canal 7 and the remaining 72 exclusively on Tigo Sports 2. Rather than disrupt that arrangement, the transition is expected to happen cleanly once the tournament ends.
For current Tigo subscribers, the immediate practical impact should be minimal at first. Users will largely continue to enjoy their familiar sports content, now under a broader offering. But the longer-term changes are where things get interesting.
Fox has already registered trademarks in Costa Rica for two products: Fox One, a streaming platform that launched in the United States in August 2025 and arrived in Mexico in October of that year, and Fox+, a cable signal dedicated exclusively to live sports events. Both point to a multi-platform strategy that goes well beyond what Tigo Sports offered.
In terms of programming, the upgrade in content could be significant. Fox One already carries the UEFA Champions League, the English Premier League, Italy’s Serie A, the CONCACAF Champions Cup, and Liga MX matches in Mexico. Whether those rights will extend fully to Costa Rica depends on territory-specific licensing agreements, but the ambition is clear. Fox is not arriving simply to inherit three Primera División clubs. It is eyeing a much larger footprint in Costa Rican sport.
On the local football front, the clubs currently contracted to Tigo Sports, Sporting FC, Puntarenas FC, and San Carlos, would initially pass to Fox, while FUTV retains the broadcast rights to the seven other top-flight clubs, including Saprissa, Alajuelense, Herediano, and Cartaginés. But Fox’s ambitions clearly stretch beyond those three teams.
Reports indicate that Herediano is expected to be one of the first major clubs to sign with Fox in Costa Rica, and there is broader speculation that the network intends to challenge FUTV’s grip on domestic football rights more aggressively once it is fully established.
One area where viewers should not expect immediate change is the national team. Broadcasting rights for La Sele remain firmly with Teletica and Repretel through 2030, though Fox has expressed long-term interest in that territory as well.
There are also reports that the new channel may be operated centrally from Mexico, which would mean some production and commentary coming from outside Costa Rica rather than from local talent. That is a point of concern for viewers accustomed to the Tico voices and regional flavor that defined Tigo Sports’ coverage. Whether Fox commits to meaningful local production or simply feeds a regional signal will likely determine how warmly it is received.
What is clear is that Fox Corporation’s arrival introduces real competition into a market that has been dominated by FUTV and its alliances with Teletica and Repretel. For viewers, more competition generally means better content, improved production quality, and potentially more accessible pricing.
The sports television landscape in Costa Rica is about to look very different by the end of 2026, and the arrival of a global heavyweight suggests the stakes have never been higher.
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