Spanish Liga football club Athletic Bilbao has confirmed a one-year contract with the Mediapro agency for its broadcast rights in the 2015-16 season.
Athletic president Josu Urrutia said the contract was signed “a few months” ago, but has only now been made public because Mediapro had previously established a confidentiality clause.
According to Spanish news agency EFE, Urrutia added that the Mediapro deal “significantly improves” the terms under its current agreement with pay-television operator Canal Plus.
The news comes with Spanish Liga and Segunda Division member clubs set to meet at a Liga de Fútbol Profesional assembly tomorrow (Friday) in a bid to push through the system under which collective broadcast rights selling will be introduced into domestic football.
Telecommunications company Telefónica in December agreed deals with Liga clubs Celta Vigo and Real Sociedad for their media rights in the 2015-16 season, with only Barcelona and Espanyol remaining from the current top division clubs yet to conclude agreements for next season.
The 2015-16 season is set to be the last in which Spanish clubs will sell their rights individually. Thereafter, rights will be sold collectively by the LFP.
Urrutia added that “there is some uncertainty” about the approach to joint selling of television rights to domestic football.