Telefónica picks up Uefa club competition rights from Mediapro

Spanish telco Telefónica has sealed an agreement with the Mediapro agency to acquire rights for the Uefa Champions League and Europa League club football tournaments.

The agreement, which still requires the approval of Uefa, football’s European governing body, will run for three seasons, from 2018-19 to 2020-21.

The deal is worth €360m ($419m), Telefónica said, adding that the five-per-cent increase in the fee across the cycle is significantly lower than increases of more than 50 per cent in some major European markets.

The telco will be able to sell on rights to other media companies and advertising revenues will be shared with Mediapro from new Movistar-branded channels that will show the coverage after being launched in the coming weeks.

Telefónica added that the deal would provide “certainty, stability and growth” for the company’s pay-television business in Spain over the next three to four years.

Mediapro has retained distribution rights for Champions League and Europa League coverage in public establishments and will also continue to show the tournaments via the beIN Connect service, whilst also broadcasting one match featuring a Spanish team on a free-to-air basis on every match day in the Europa League.

The new rights in the residential Spanish market come on top of Telefónica acquiring the pay-television rights to nine LaLiga top-tier Spanish matches per round over the three seasons, from 2019-20 to 2021-22.

Uefa is expected to grant approval in the coming days.