Advanced Television

Movistar refuses to bid for football

February 23, 2018

From David Del Valle in Madrid

Telefónica’s pay-TV platform Movistar has made the first move in putting pressure on Mediapro to reduce the price of football TV rights in Spain.

The company has decided not to bid for the Champions League and La Liga TV rights in an attempt to put the pressure on for a cut in the cost of rights.

The move coincides with its boost in production of original Spanish TV series and the launch of a new package focussing on TV series and movies in an attempt to rely on different content to capture subscribers. The new strategy seems to be working so far. In the last quarter of the year, Movistar gained 81,000 subscribers for a total of 3.8 million.

Vodafone and Orange are also reluctant to pay high for football rights, and could also refuse to bid.

Categories: Articles, Content, Pay TV, Rights