A group of five Spanish consumer organisations have registered a complaint with the country’s industry ministry relating to the performance of the Mediapro agency’s TotalChannel OTT platform, which provides coverage of club football competition the Uefa Champions League.
The Asociación de Internautas, Unión de Consumidores de Cataluña, Asociación pro Derechos Civiles, Económicos y Sociales, Unión de Consumidores de la Comunidad Valenciana and Unión de Consumidores de Andalucía have called on the ministry to intervene, citing TotalChannel’s interruptions, registration problems and general poor service.
The five consumer organisations claim the ministry has a duty to intervene when companies that provide services that are of the general public interest fail to do so with the desired quality levels.
However, in a statement reported by the PanoramaAudiovisual.com website, TotalChannel hit back at the criticism, stating the problems reported are connected to internet infrastructure in Spain, rather than its own platform.
TotalChannel emphasised that it provides “infrastructure to subscribers only related to content. TotalChannel technical services have been monitoring the incidents detected and, after the first day of Champions (League), all had limitations in relation to ISPs that provide internet access to subscribers.”
It also added that “other OTT platforms have experienced similar problems in launching their activities in Spain.”
The consumer groups also criticised Mediapro’s failure to secure carriage of Champions League football on Movistar TV, the IPTV platform of telecommunications company Telefónica. They believe this places too great a strain on the TotalChannel service.
The BeIN Sports channel, which launched in Spain on August 1, is being distributed by Mediapro to pay-television operators, but Movistar TV is not among them. BeIN Sports shows coverage of the Champions League and Europa League, as well as the English Premier League, Italian Serie A and French Ligue 1 top divisions.
The TotalChannel statement added: “It is Movistar who is providing poor service to subscribers by not offering the opportunity to enjoy the best international competitions. TotalChannel is making all possible windows available so that football fans can follow the Champions League and Europa League despite Movistar’s attitude.”