Abstract The corrosion resistance of an alkyd paint was evaluated, substituting commercial anticorrosive with a thin film of NiO-ZrO 2 Y partially stabilized with Ytria deposited by means of the RF sputtering technique. Hot-rolled (HR) steel was used as the substrate. For the two anticorrosive coating systems, the structure, morphology, and composition were determined via the techniques of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) in order to determine the composition of the NiO-ZrO 2 Y film. The corrosion resistance was determined from polarization curves and weight loss by immersion in a 3.5% NaCl solution. The electrochemical and weight loss results indicated that use of the NiO-ZrO 2 film shows a fourfold increase in the corrosion resistance of the material subjected to immersion in the corrosive electrolyte compared to the traditionally-used commercial anticorrosive.