ESPN has widened its portfolio of Spanish football in Brazil by adding three cup competitions to its coverage.
The global sports broadcaster has acquired the rights to the men’s Copa del Rey, the women’s Copa de la Reina and women’s Supercopa cup competitions. All rights have been acquired exclusively and are believed to be for a three-season cycle between 2019-20 and 2021-22.
Copa del Rey matches will be exploited on ESPN Brasil’s linear television channel, while the women’s competitions will be exploited on its OTT platform ESPN+.
The three cup competitions join the men’s top-tier LaLiga in ESPN’s portfolio of Spanish football rights, though its LaLiga rights are due to expire at the end of this season.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), the rights-holder to the three competitions, is advised on the sale of its properties globally by the Sportradar agency.
This cycle represents the first in which the RFEF has handled the centralised sale of rights to both the final and main body of the competition. LaLiga, the governing body for the twp top tiers of Spanish domestic football, previously sold all rights excluding the final.
ESPN also bought the rights to the Copa del Rey final in the United States as part of the international tender process.
In November, the RFEF announced in November 2019 that it had raised a total of nearly €80m ($88.6m) – or €26.7m per season – from the sale of domestic and ‘selected’ international rights to the Copa del Rey over the next three seasons.