Movistar pays €2.4bn for La Liga and Champions League
January 13, 2016
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Telefonica and media group Mediapro have reached an agreement for Telefonica’s pay TV platform Movistar Plus to buy the rights to La Liga and the Champions League for the next three years, starting in 2016-2017.
Telefonica will pay Mediapro €2.4 billion for adding to Movistar’s line-up Mediapro-distributed BeIN Sports La Liga and Champions channels including all matches from La Liga, La Copa del Rey and the European Champions and UEFA leagues, starting immediately and continuing through the 2017-2018 season.
BeIN Sports La Liga will exclusively broadcast eight football matches from the First Division every weekend, including one from Real Madrid or Barcelona. In addition, BeIN Sports Champions will broadcast the whole Champions League, the Europa League and the main International Football Leagues.
With this agreement, Telefonica’s Movistar Plus, with over 3.8 million subs, is catching up with its main rivals in the domestic market, Vodafone and Orange. Both already had agreements with Mediapro to broadcast the current Champions League, which started in the second half of 2015.