LaLiga president Javier Tebas has said the organisation which oversees the top two divisions of Spanish club football expects to earn €2.3bn ($2.66bn) per year from its broadcast rights within three seasons, adding that the organisation can now look to take its rights to market as the political situation in Catalonia has improved.
LaLiga currently generates around €1bn per season for its domestic rights, and a further €650m from the international market. Tebas, speaking at a Europa Press gathering yesterday (Tuesday), said that new contracts should bring in around €1.3bn per season for domestic rights and €1bn for overseas, if negotiations progress smoothly.
Rights deals for European markets will be sold on a three-season basis, with LaLiga set to be flexible in its approach for the rest of the world. The new deals are expected to be phased in between two and three seasons from now.
Tebas last month said LaLiga had delayed talks over its next set of international broadcast rights amid the uncertainty caused by Catalonia’s proposed split from Spain. Speaking yesterday, Tebas said, according to Spanish newspaper Marca: “Luckily it seems that the problem of independence is already history, we had to delay the international competition for that.
“I was saying that Barça (Barcelona) could not play in LaLiga because they had to correct the post-truth. That is in the past and thank goodness that the government has put (the situation) in order, now we are going to go to the market and the conditions are better.”
Tebas also discussed the pay-television market, the rising interest in football content from new players in the industry and the need for LaLiga to ensure it delivers a premium product.
He said: “We have over 4.2 million football subscribers, this favours the growth of all pay-TV and by 2020 I think we can reach nine million. Netflix and HBO's interest in football should not be ignored.
“Spain is a footballing country and we are a key element to be premium. Abroad we do not have that anymore, we are one more (product) and we have to make the product competitive, interesting… There is the (English) Premier League, Formula One, (Uefa) Champions League… and you have to be interesting for the citizen of any country in the world, we are working hard on this and on the quality of our broadcasts.”