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This is a list of television broadcasters which provide coverage of La Liga, Spanish football's top-level competition. [1] [2]
La Liga matches have been broadcast since 1963 when the public television station TVE reached an agreement with the RFEF to broadcast one match each week. Since the 1987-88 season, an agreement was also reached with the regional television stations to broadcast the same game that TVE broadcast in the rest of the country. [3]
For the 1990-91 season, the federation made the first tender for the rights, being granted to the regional television stations and Canal Plus for eight seasons, a relevant fact that would forever change football broadcasts in that country, the arrival of Pay TV. Canal Plus was awarded the rights to broadcast a match each week in pay-per-view, for which it paid 12 million pesetas. [3]
Because each club was the owner to market its audiovisual rights, Antena 3 and Canal Plus began to negotiate to be able to acquire the rights of the largest number of clubs with the 1998-99 season, a fight to which TV3 would also join, which would start the so-called The football war (La guerra del fútbol).
On September 1996, the federation changed the agreement for the sale of audiovisual rights that it had established with Forta and Canal+ until the 1997-98 season, to modify that contract and include Antena 3, allowing it to broadcast a match on FTA on Monday for the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons. This conflict had both media and political repercussions, and several complaints and accusations were made against different directors of the companies involved since Canal Plus was categorically opposed to any modification of the contract of July 6, 1990. [4]
After several confrontations, companies reached an understanding and signed an agreement to establish Audiovisual Sport SL, in which 40% would be owned by Sogecable (Canal Plus), 40% by Antena 3 TV, and 20% by TV3. This company would exploit 100% of the television rights of Spanish football. This agreement would be called the Christmas Eve pact (El pacto de nochebuena), since it would be signed on December 24, 1996. [5]
On July 5, 1997, the government approved the so-called 'football law', which harmed Canal Plus and established the obligation to broadcast at least one free-to-air match of the day whenever there was an interested operator. The law is still in force and a match of little interest is broadcast every Friday.
In 2006, another event occurred that would shake the market, the arrival of the television services company Mediapro, which began to manage the rights of several teams. After tense situations that included the prohibition of entry of cameras, on July 24, 2006 the parties ended up agreeing on a new version of the Christmas Eve Pact. The two companies could offer all paid matches and La Sexta would broadcast free-to-air. [5] [6]
Subsequent disagreements between the partners led to mutual accusations of non-compliance with this agreement, which would begin the second football war.
On July 9, 2007, Audiovisual Sport announced the filing of a lawsuit against Mediapro to demand compliance with its payment obligations and compensation. Mediapro announces that it has reached an agreement with 39 of the 42 clubs in the LFP and requests a renegotiation of the contract and announces its intention to market the rights itself. On October 9, 2007, a court approves precautionary measures requested by AVS and prohibits Mediapro from exploiting the audiovisual rights of first division clubs. On July 15, 2008. AVS claims 200 million debt from this production company. [7] Finally, on June 4, 2009, Sogecable and Mediapro reached an agreement that guarantees Canal+ and Digital+ subscribers all matches, at least for the next three seasons. [8]
Finally, after several years of legal battles and selling the rights individually, on April 30, 2015, Royal Decree-Law 5/2015 was approved, which establishes a joint marketing system for the audiovisual rights of professional football from of the 2016-17 season, which avoids wars between operators and economic inequalities. No team will be able to directly market these rights, which must be transferred to the competition organizer, the LFP, which will be the entity in charge of selling the rights through a tender. [9]
This allowed the 20 clubs to go from earning nearly €800 million to pocketing more than €1.5 billion. The rights for this first cycle were granted to Telefonica with one First pick match exclusively, beIN Sports that acquired a package of 8 matches in third choice and Mediapro with the free-to-air match. [10]
For the 2019-22 cycle, the league put eight lots up for sale. Telefónica managed to obtain the rights to lots 4 and 5, which included "one first pick match on each matchday of the First Division, exclusively, eight paid matches of each matchday, exclusively in the third selection", and the highlights of all matches. The total cost of the lots awarded was €3.42 billion, 15% more than in the last cycle. [11]
For the current cycle, La Liga sold the rights to Movistar and DAZN for five seasons from 2022-23 to 2026-27. This agreement is valued at €4.95 billion and represents a increase of 1% more compared to the previous agreement that Movistar owned exclusively. Movistar broadcasts five games per day and DAZN the remaining five in a new model for selling television rights. In addition, Movistar has the right to broadcast three full matchdays. GOL Televisión will continue to broadcast one match per day on FTA, with the limitation that it will never be one in which a club from European competitions participates. [12]
For the 2015-16 season, Mediapro had the rights to 38 of the 42 first and second division teams. The company reached an agreement with the League to transfer the rights of all its teams to the LFP to advance to that season the centralized sale of the same, which was mandatory by royal decree starting with the 2016-2017 season. In exchange for this advance, the League made Mediapro the marketing agent of the international rights for a guaranteed minimum price of €400 million, an amount that would be much higher once the sale by country of the same is completed and which could amount to €600 million unlike the previous year where, without centralized sales, the teams obtained only €230 million. The agreement did not include, of course, neither Barcelona – nor the three teams that Telefónica had in its portfolio (Celta de Vigo, Real Sociedad and Espanyol). [13]
Telefonica presented a counteroffer of up to €450 million per season (€1.35bn for three years). The proposal did not offer a guaranteed minimum – as Mediapro did – and that is why it was classified as insufficient. The proposal did not satisfy La Liga either with the amount, which was below what they would obtain with the intermediation of Mediapro, or with the formula: while the Catalan audiovisual group only acted as an intermediary in exchange for a commission, the multinational telecommunications company would take ownership and resell them to third parties without the obligation to consult.
This situation would cause a return to the past, in which La Liga had almost no decision-making power over which operator it transferred broadcasts abroad to. Until that moment, could negotiate directly and in some countries or markets decide not only based on the economic offer, but also according to the level of media exposure guaranteed by television.
In 2018, the company extended the agreement with the sale of international audiovisual rights for the next five seasons from 2019/2020 until 2023/2024. Thanks to this agreement, LaLiga is guaranteed income from international audiovisual rights of €4.48bn over the period, 30% more than in the previous three-year period. [14]
In the latest agreement, Mediapro extended the rights until the 2028-2029 season. However, this time the Middle East, North Africa and North America have been excluded from the new pact, since LaLiga already has regional companies there to manage them.
Seasons | Free-to-air | Pay television | PPV | Total | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2009–2010 [15] | laSexta | 38 | Canal+ | 38 | Canal+ Liga | 106 [lower-alpha 1] | GOLT [ es ] | 128 | – | 191 [lower-alpha 2] | 380 | |||
2010–2011 [16] | 112 [lower-alpha 1] | 146 | 192 [lower-alpha 3] | |||||||||||
2011–2012 [17] | 114 [lower-alpha 1] | 152 | Canal+ Liga 2 [ es ] | 190 | Abono Fútbol [ es ] | 152 | 190 [lower-alpha 4] | |||||||
2012–2013 [18] | 5 | 304 [lower-alpha 5] | 304 [lower-alpha 5] | – | – | |||||||||
MARCA TV | 23 | |||||||||||||
Cuatro | 10 [lower-alpha 6] | |||||||||||||
2013–2014 [19] | 38 | 1 [lower-alpha 7] | ||||||||||||
2014–2015 [20] | 27 | – | ||||||||||||
Energy | 11 | |||||||||||||
2015–2016 [21] | La 1 | 32 | Canal+ Partidazo [ es ] | Abono Fútbol [ es ] | ||||||||||
Teledeporte | 6 | Abono Fútbol 1 [ es ] | ||||||||||||
2016–2019 [22] [23] [24] | GOL | 38 | Movistar Partidazo [ es ] | BeIN LaLiga [ es ] | 304 | – | ||||||||
2019–2022 [25] [26] | Movistar LaLiga | 342 | – | |||||||||||
2022–2025 [27] | 205 [lower-alpha 8] | DAZN | 175 [lower-alpha 8] | – | ||||||||||
2022–2027 [28] |
Country | Broadcasters |
---|---|
Angola | ZAP |
Mozambique | |
South Africa | SuperSport |
Sub-Saharan Africa | SuperSport Canal+ |
Country | Broadcasters |
---|---|
Argentina Chile Colombia Ecuador Peru Uruguay Venezuela | ESPN, DSports [29] |
Costa Rica Dominican Republic El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua Panama | Sky Sports, Vix+ en Tigo [29] |
Bolivia | ESPN, Tigo Sports [29] |
Brazil | ESPN |
Canada | TSN, RDS [30] [31] |
Caribbean | SportsMax, ESPN [29] |
Cuba | Tele Rebelde |
Haiti | Haiti Sport |
Mexico | Sky Sports, Canal 5 |
Paraguay | ESPN, Tigo Sports [29] |
Puerto Rico | ESPN |
Suriname | SCCN |
United States | ABC, ESPN, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes [30] [32] |
Country | Broadcasters |
---|---|
Afghanistan | Meraj TV, SOLH TV |
Australia | Optus Sport [33] |
Brunei | beIN Sports |
Bangladesh | Rabbithole |
Cambodia | beIN Sports |
Central Asia | Setanta Sports |
China | Migu |
Hong Kong | Now Sports |
Indian Subcontinent | Sports18 |
Indonesia | beIN Sports [34] |
Iran | IRIB 3, IRIB Varzesh, Perisiana Sports |
Japan | DAZN, U-Next [35] |
Laos | beIN Sports |
Macau | TDM, M Plus |
Malaysia | beIN Sports |
Maldives | Ice Sports |
Myanmar | Canal+ |
Pacific Islands | Digicel |
Pakistan | A Sports |
Papua New Guinea | Digicel |
Philippines | Setanta Sports, beIN Sports |
Singapore | beIN Sports |
South Korea | Coupang Play [36] |
Taiwan | DAZN |
Tajikistan | TV Varzish, TV Football |
Thailand | beIN Sports |
Turkmenistan | Turkmenistan Sport |
Uzbekistan | Sport |
Vietnam | SCTV [37] [38] |
Country | Broadcasters |
---|---|
Albania | SuperSport |
Armenia | Setanta Sports Eurasia, Fast Sports |
Austria | DAZN |
Azerbaijan | Setanta Sports Eurasia, TVNet, Real TV |
Belarus | Setanta Sports Eurasia |
Belgium | DAZN |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | Arena Sport |
Bulgaria | Max Sport |
Croatia | Arena Sport |
Cyprus | PrimeTel Sports |
Czech Republic | Nova Sport, Premier Sport |
Denmark | TV 2 Sport |
Estonia | Setanta Sports Eurasia, Go3 Sport |
Finland | C More Sport |
France | beIN Sports |
Georgia | Setanta Sports Eurasia, Silk Sport |
Germany | DAZN |
Greece | Nova Sports |
Hungary | Spíler TV |
Ireland | Premier Sports |
Italy | DAZN |
Kosovo | ArtSport [ sq ], K Sport [ sq ] [39] |
Latvia | Setanta Sports Eurasia, Go3 Sport |
Liechtenstein | Blue Sport, DAZN |
Lithuania | Setanta Sports Eurasia, Go3 Sport |
Luxembourg | DAZN |
Malta | Total Sports Network |
Moldova | Setanta Sports Eurasia |
Montenegro | Arena Sport |
Netherlands | Ziggo Sport |
North Macedonia | Arena Sport |
Norway | TV 2 Sport |
Poland | Eleven Sports, NC+ |
Portugal | DAZN |
Romania | Digi Sport, Orange Sport, Prima Sport |
Russia | Okko Sport |
San Marino | DAZN |
Serbia | Arena Sport |
Slovakia | Nova Sport, Premier Sport |
Slovenia | Arena Sport |
Sweden | C More Sport |
Switzerland | Blue Sport |
Turkey | S Sport |
Ukraine | MEGOGO |
United Kingdom | Viaplay, ITV [40] [41] |
Country | Broadcasters |
---|---|
MENA | beIN Sports [42] |
Israel | ONE |
PRISA Televisión, S.A.U is a pay TV company in Spain.
The Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional, also known as LaLiga, is a sports association responsible for administering the two professional football leagues in Spain, the Primera and Segunda Divisions, or LaLiga EA Sports and LaLiga Hypermotion for sponsorship reasons. Founded in 1984, the organisation has independent legal status from the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and it is autonomous in its operations. Its main role, in addition to defending its members' interests, is to organise the National League Championship in conjunction with the RFEF.
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