Telefónica agreed to pay $2.6B for rights to Spanish football and Champions League matches, "a move that gives the company’s pay-TV service sports telecasts its competitors already have," according to Rodrigo Orihuela of BLOOMBERG. Telefónica will pay Mediapro for rights to La Liga and two other tournaments for three seasons starting in '16-17, according to a regulatory filing in Madrid on Tuesday. It will also broadcast the UEFA Europa and Champions League, "starting immediately and continuing through" the '17-18 season. Under the agreement, the beIN Sports channel will be added to Telefónica’s pay-TV services, according to the filing. Telefónica, which broadcasts football through its Movistar brand, is "catching up with its main rivals in its domestic market, Vodafone Group Plc and Orange SA," both of which have agreements with Mediapro to broadcast the current season of the Champions League. Telefónica controls around 85% of Spain’s pay-TV market. The telecom in July announced the acquisition of Spanish media rights to the '15-16 season of La Liga, the first time it did so (BLOOMBERG, 1/12). DIGITAL TV EUROPE reported beIN Sports broadcasts coverage of eight live La Liga games each matchday, including one featuring Real Madrid or Barcelona. In addition to securing a complete offering of football for Movistar, the deal gives beIN Sports "additional reach." The service has "previously been available on the services of Vodafone, Orange and Telecable, which have aggressively pushed their ability to offer the channel as a key differentiator" against Telefónica (DIGITAL TV EUROPE, 1/13). In Barcelona, Manuel Bruña reported Spanish Superior Sports Council (CSD) President Miguel Cardenal "did not hide his happiness with the agreement between Movistar and beIN Sports to carry La Liga, Champions League and Europa League." Cardenal: "I view this agreement with enormous satisfaction. ... We have worked a lot during these four years, I have personally dedicated a lot of time to everything related to the topic of football broadcasts. ... Today we find that Spanish football has gone from black and white to color. We have a modern law, a social law in which a significant part of this money goes to other sports, to emerging sports; it will pay for the social security of high-level athletes; it goes to women's sports and it goes to amateur sports" (MUNDO DEPORTIVO, 1/13).
