Operators battle for Mediapro’s World Cup channel

Movistar TV, the IPTV platform of telecommunications company Telefónica, and pay-television operator Canal Plus are the favourites to acquire carriage rights for the Mediapro agency’s Gol Mundial channel in Spain, according to Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

The report added that every major pay-television operator in Spain had tabled a bid to carry Gol Mundial, which will provide blanket coverage in Spain of the 2014 Fifa World Cup national team football tournament. Mediapro gave bidders a deadline of December 23.

The channel will provide 24 hours of programming per day from May 19 to July 20, including live coverage of all 64 matches during the tournament, including 39 on an exclusive basis.

The coverage will also be available to existing subscribers of Mediapro’s Gol T pay-television channel, which is distributed on the digital-terrestrial TDT Premium service.

The carriage rights will be awarded in the coming weeks.