Mediapro, the production and media rights agency, is said to have joined the growing number of broadcasters and agencies in calling for the Argentinian Superliga to reissue its international rights tender.
The governing body for the top-tier of Argentinian football has already been criticised by ESPN, the US-headquartered sports broadcaster, for issuing a tender which critics have said gives too little time to submit a comprehensive offer and contains “many questionable aspects”.
Reports in Argentinian newspaper Doble Amarilla said that Mediapro has written to the Superliga to demand that it cancel the international tender and amend the tender’s methodology.
The Superliga recently kicked off the invitation to tender with bidders given a deadline of January 20 to submit their offers. The deadline was then extended with a consultation deadline set for January 28 (today) with bids expected by February 3. The league was thought to be looking for offers of around $15m per season for the international rights.
Torneos, the Argentinian rights agency, is the long-standing international rights-holder of the Superliga. Its current agreement is worth around $6m (€5.4m) per season.
ESPN’s letter to the league had expressed concerns about the tender containing “ambiguous, confusing and inaccurate points”.
In 2016, Torneos renegotiated a rights deal with the AFA covering the country’s national team and the lower-league National B Division and First Division B competitions.
The ITT was issued with the protracted takeover of Torneos by Mediapro, the media rights agency and production group active across Latin America, still to be completed.