Mediapro has won an appeal in the Spanish Supreme Court against an earlier ruling that the agency had breached contracts relating to rights for Spanish football’s top-tier Liga.
Five judges found unanimously in favour of Mediapro in the appeal filed against a sentence handed down by Madrid’s provincial appeal court in relation to the contracts, signed in July 2006.
The saga dates back to August 2007 when rival media company Prisa accused Mediapro of contractual breach and cut the television signal for football matches due to be shown to Mediapro's customers.
The court found that the contracts Mediapro had been accused of breaching were “null and void”.
Prisa had been seeking more than €320m ($397m) from Mediapro, but following the ruling, which cannot be appealed, the latter will pay €32m – the amount resulting from a settlement between the two companies covering the 2006-07 season. The €32m total was already owed by Mediapro prior to Prisa cutting the television signals for the matches.