Telefónica snaps up TV rights for Spanish football
Telefónica has agreed to pay €600m for the domestic rights to broadcast the matches of Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and all other Spanish league teams, as part of the group's efforts to push the pay-TV market in its home country.
The deal was announced by the Spanish telecoms group and the LFP professional league association on Friday, report Tobias Buck in Madrid and Malcolm Moore in London.
It is the first time the league has sold the broadcasting rights for its top two divisions on a collective basis, rather than leaving each team free to market its own rights.
The sale of the league's television rights outside Spain is expected to yield another €600m, according to statements this week from Javier Tebas, the LFP president.
Though the deal has yet to be announced, it is expected that the international rights will be marketed country-by-country by Mediapro, the Spanish media group.
Telefónica has long been keen to boost Spain's under-developed pay-TV market, and regards football as the key to lifting subscriber numbers.
Less than a third of Spanish households currently have a pay-TV subscription, significantly below the rates in the UK and France.
Telefónica hopes that the ability to offer all matches on one platform will boost its Movistar+ pay-TV service , although competition rules mean that it will have to offer match rights also to other providers.
Telefónica will pay €600m for the 2015/2016 season, up only marginally from the €588m that the league was paid for the domestic rights last year.
The increase is expected to be more pronounced when it comes to selling the international rights, which last season were worth only €200m to the league.
Mr Tebas, the league president, has long argued that collective deals – which are standard in most top European leagues – will boost Spanish clubs' overall take.
In the long run, the shift also aims at stabilising, and possibly easing, the financial divide between the country's top two clubs, Madrid and Barcelona, and the rest of the league.