Pan-regional pay-television broadcaster GolTV will retain its rights deal with the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF) after an offer from rival DirecTV under a new bidding contest was rejected.
Last June, the FEF unveiled a 10-year deal with GolTV, granting the company rights to the Primera Categoría Serie A and Serie B divisions for 10 years, from 2018 to 2027. The contract is worth a guaranteed $276m (€225.7m) but has been challenged in the courts amid unease as to how the rights were awarded.
DirecTV was one of the companies that took issue with the award of the rights. On January 29, a local judge ordered the FEF to conduct a new contest for the rights, which was held yesterday (Tuesday).
Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo said the contest was declared closed after Jorge Chang, a lawyer representing the FEF, said “no offer was submitted” during the timeframe allocated.
However, DirecTV representative Fernando Ferro has claimed he delivered a bid to the FEF, only for the offer not to be accepted because the envelope was not “well sealed”.
Ferro said DirecTV’s proposal started with $30m for the 2018 season, $8m more than that offered by GolTV, with the offer worth $402m in total over the 10-year period.
The formal acceptance of GolTV’s offer means that the new Serie A season has been scheduled to launch on Friday.