LaLiga Sports TV, the multi-sports OTT platform launched by Spanish football’s LaLiga, has reached 300,000 registered users, according to LaLiga president Javier Tebas who was speaking at the World Football Summit in Madrid earlier this week.
LaLiga Sports TV offers free live coverage of various sports, including matches of the ASOBAL Handball league and Spain’s second-tier basketball division Liga LEB Oro, plus sports such as badminton, petanque and weightlifting.
It went live in March of this year as a multi-sport proposition but also streams live games from Spanish football’s second-tier Segunda División, but behind a paywall. Short highlights from Spain’s top two soccer leagues are also offered on the platform.
Tebas said that the strategy around LaLiga Sports TV was focused on “consumption”, specifically the time when sports are being watched and for how long. He also announced that LaLiga had invested €7.5m to date in the OTT platform, comprised of €4m for buying content and €3.5m for IT infrastructure.
Tebas has routinely spoken out about what OTT platforms could mean for rightsholders in the future.
In an interview with SportBusiness earlier this month, Tebas said that the disruption brought about by OTT platforms could slash values worldwide “if we are not very wary of it and cautious”.
LaLiga has entered a partnership with Microsoft in order to develop the data collection and analysis systems to utilise the data gathered by those using its OTT platform.
LaLiga Sports TV was launched in March with the intention of boosting the exposure of Spanish sports, becoming the first European league to launch its own OTT service in doing so. Viewers can access it on mobile devices – both mobile phones and tablets – and smart TVs.