Advanced Television

Movistar Plus to offer Premier League

December 7, 2015

From David Del Valle in Madrid

Telefónica’s Movistar Plus has acquired the exclusive rights to air English Premier League football matches in Spain. The three year deal will start next season.

The news comes at a time when Telefonica has suffered major setbacks in its strategy to capture pay-TV subscribers, having lost most of its football TV rights to Mediapro.

In an auction for the rights to broadcast La Liga matches over the next three seasons, Mediapro won the packages to broadcast first división, second división and King’s Cup matches for €1.9 billion. Mediapro won the exclusive rights to screen eight La Liga games on pay-TV channels, plus all the games of the Spanish domestic cup competition (Copa del Rey) except the semi-finals and final.

Telefonica unit DTS won thr rights to screen a smaller package of games from these leagues for €750 million. In what was the first UK-style collective auction for live TV rights, Telefonica lost the exclusive rights to broadcast La Liga from 2016/17 to 2018/19. Its package gives it the right to screen just one exclusive game per match day, albeit the top game, plus a second division game.

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