Spain: Sogecable and Mediapro in a blazing row
August 27, 2007
From David Del Valle in Madrid
With TV football broadcasts in the air, Sogecable and Mediapro are intensifying their respective attacks. Sogecable has accused Mediapro of pirating the TV signal to offer football matches with no legal TV rights to them.
Mediapro has soon reacted by offering for free the commercial channel La Sexta, in which it is one of its shareholders, to broadcast a football match every Sunday in direct competition with Sogecable’s Canal Plus.
Similarly, Mediapro wants to prevent Digital Plus, the digital satellite platform owned by Sogecable, from broadcasting 4 football matches on pay-per-view on the grounds that the production company has the TV rights for the involved football teams. The decision will also affect pay-TV operations from Ono and Imagenio.