Mediaset Rips Spanish Football League For Granting RTVE Exclusive Rights To Summaries

RTVE's acquisition of the exclusive rights to carry summaries of La Liga and Copa del Rey games "has provoked enormous concern" at Mediaset, according to J.I.G. of MARCA. Mediaset believes that "this is violating the rights of private broadcasters, and probably also the rights of fans." Mediaset: "The summaries have always been able to be watched on all TVs, and Mediaset thinks that it should remain this way, for the benefit of the audience. Assigning exclusivity to RTVE limits other channels' right to information and favors public TV, which acquires more than the others with money from the public, while at the same time announcing losses." Mediaset added that it is "irresponsible" for RTVE, which just announced losses of nearly €100M in the last exercise, to pay €12M ($13M) for the summaries, "knowing that this TV is paid for by everyone" (MARCA, 8/4).