In the first instance, the Juzgado No. 10 in Madrid dismissed a lawsuit brought by Audiovisual, the football club television rights holding company controlled by Sogecable, in which it accused Mediapro, the Liga de Fútbol Profesional and regional public-service broadcaster TV3 of fraud, concerning the signing of individual club television rights contracts by Mediapro over the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons.
The following day, a provincial court in Mallorca dismissed a lawsuit brought by Audiovisual against the directors of Mallorca football club, Mediapro and commercial broadcaster La Sexta, in which Mediapro holds a significant stake. In the lawsuit, Audiovisual accused the three groups of defendents of fraud over La Sexta’s exclusive broadcast of Mallorca’s home match against Real Madrid in April 2008, claiming it held the home club’s rights and had not sold the rights to La Sexta. The court agreed with the Liga’s designation of the match as the ‘general interest’ match of the week, for which La Sexta holds the rights.
The day after that ruling, a provincial court in Barcelona ordered Prisa national newspaper El País to correct information in an article it printed in December 2007, in which it stated that a court had prohibited Mediapro from acquiring any Liga television rights. It was the 9th such ruling ordering Prisa newspapers and television channels to correct information regarding Mediapro’s right to acquire Liga television rights.