LaLiga, the organising body of Spanish club football, has maintained that commercial broadcaster Mediaset is in breach of its broadcast regulations after the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y La Competencia (CNMC), Spain’s competition regulator, opened proceedings against the organisation.
The CNMC has taken action after Mediaset and fellow commercial broadcaster Atresmedia were prevented from accessing LaLiga stadiums. The watchdog claims LaLiga is breaching article 19.3 of La Ley General de Comunicación Audiovisual, impacting on citizens’ right to information.
The CNMC has threatened LaLiga with fines of €20,000 ($21,180) per match day in the first two weeks, which will be increased to €30,000 per day from day 15 if Mediaset continues to be denied access.
Mediaset last week filed a complaint with the CNMC against LaLiga allegedly breaching the terms of an agreement to broadcast match clips. Mediaset was protesting a decision by LaLiga preventing the company from having cameras in stadiums during game weeks 24 and 25 of the top division of domestic football.
LaLiga claims Mediaset has breached the terms of an agreement that grants it access to game clips. In January 2016, the CNMC ruled that LaLiga must provide a 90-second summary of every game from the top division of domestic football and allow free access to stadiums for broadcasters.
The ruling followed a complaint from Mediaset whose cameras had initially been banned from Spanish top-tier matches by LaLiga after the broadcaster refused to accept conditions imposed on free-to-air broadcasters regarding limits of 90 seconds per weekend on match recaps.
LaLiga imposed the restrictions in an effort to protect the rights of public-service broadcaster TVE, which acquired free-to-air rights for the top tier for the 2015-16 season. Mediaset, which owns the Telecinco and Cuatro channels, had argued there should be coverage of each game and the CNMC ruled in its favour.
In a statement released yesterday (Thursday), LaLiga said: “The highlights coverage, which is referred to by Article 19.3 of the General Law on Audiovisual Communication 7/2010 of 31 March, may only be used for the purposes of two general news programmes, must feature less than 90 seconds per game and cannot be used beyond the 24-hour window after the conclusion of the game. The aforementioned operator has systematically breached Article 19.3 and the Resolution issued by the CNMC on 15 January 2016.
“In view of the above limitations, the audiovisual service providers are not entitled to use the images on digital platforms, websites, social media channels or any other similar media. This has, however, been the case with the publication of images on its on-demand television platform MITELE and the websites of the television channels Cuatro and Telecinco, as LaLiga has been able to verify.”
LaLiga added: “The images recorded by the camera operator, as provided for under the terms of Article 19.3 of the General Law on Audiovisual Communication with a view to offering 'a resource of public interest', must limit themselves to comprising an edited highlights clip lasting less than 90 seconds per game, which affords them the status of 'a resource of public interest'.
“These images must be confined exclusively to the on-field action, avoiding the broadcasting of other images which could inhibit the players from carrying out their sporting duties within the free exercise of their profession, as has been witnessed with the constant tracking of some players carried out by Mediaset's cameras.”