Spanish commercial broadcaster Mediaset has claimed a win in a legal row with LaLiga, which operates the top two divisions of club football in the country, over the airing of 90-second highlights packages.
LaLiga had lodged an appeal with Spain’s Supreme Court over the issue.
However, the Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal on the grounds that the 90-second packages are per game, and not per day, which is how LaLiga had interpreted the ruling, according to Spanish newspaper AS.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court found that 90 seconds per league game is considered a sufficient length of time to ensure citizens’ right to information. This is, however, so long as broadcasters abide by limitations set by the Comisión de los Mercados y La Competencia (CNMC), Spain’s competition regulator, which limit summaries to two broadcasts of 90 seconds per game within 24 hours of the match ending.
The Supreme Court found that the ruling cannot refer to 90-second packages per day as this would seriously limit the amount of highlights for each match on days when there are lots of games.
The CNMC began an investigation in March 2019 into an alleged violation of the short highlight clips legislation by Mediaset and fellow commercial broadcaster Atresmedia.
In March 2017, Mediaset filed a complaint with the CNMC against LaLiga allegedly breaching the terms of an agreement to broadcast match clips.
Mediaset protested a decision by LaLiga preventing the company from having cameras in stadiums during two game weeks during the 2016-17 LaLiga season. It came after the CNMC ruled in January 2016 that LaLiga must provide a 90-second summary of every game from the top flight of domestic football and allow free access to stadiums for broadcasters.