Marca TV pounces for Euroleague rights

Marca TV, the Spanish digital-terrestrial channel managed by the Mediapro agency, has acquired rights to show games involving Spanish team Unicaja Malaga in the Euroleague, basketball’s top European club competition, in a one-year deal covering the 2012-13 season.

Marca TV will provide live coverage of all Malaga’s games in the competition as well as other games involving non-Spanish teams.

The opening game of Spanish team Real Madrid’s Euroleague campaign against Greek team Panathinaikos on Friday will also be shown by Marca TV as a one-off “to celebrate the new agreement,” the Euroleague said.

Marca, which will also provide coverage online, will show other programming related to the Euroleague.

Financial details were not disclosed. Before the deal was announced, Euroleague chief executive Jordi Bertomeu dismissed speculation that his organisation was prepared to waive a rights fee in order to secure exposure in Spain.