International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports has acquired rights in the UK, Ireland, Belgium and Poland to the semi-finals of this year’s Copa del Rey Spanish football competition.
Rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid will meet for the first leg of their semi-final later today (Wednesday), with the return leg scheduled for February 27.
The other semi-final pits Real Betis and Valencia, with these matches scheduled for February 7 and February 28. Eleven Sports will show all four semi-final matches.
Eleven Sports also holds rights to LaLiga in the aforementioned markets. Barcelona and Real Madrid meet in the league on March 2, ensuring that Eleven Sports will broadcast three El Clásico matches in the space of 24 days.
Eleven Sports last week confirmed that it will continue its live and exclusive UK coverage of LaLiga until the end of the 2018-19 season, following negotiations with the league.
However, the broadcaster announced that its UK coverage of the Italian Serie A and Dutch Eredivisie will cease at the end of this month, following a “strategic decision” to amicably end its partnership with the IMG agency, which manages these rights.
Eleven Sports has agreed to share Serie A coverage with pay-television broadcaster Premier Sports throughout February, before coverage switches exclusively to the latter from March 1.