Mediapro

The Mediapro agency has been unveiled as the host broadcaster for the 2019 Pan American and Parapan American Games multi-sport event in Lima, Peru.

Lega Serie A and its media-rights adviser Infront are on a collision course with the Mediapro agency, which was appointed intermediary for the league’s domestic live rights, after the Spanish agency failed to meet this week’s deadline to pay its guarantee. 

Eleven Sports’ surprise entrance into the UK sports-rights market will have been welcomed by rights-holders around the world.

LaLiga has increased the value of its rights in 13 European and Asian markets by about 20 per cent in a single deal with the Advisers Media International agency.

Digital media specialists Perform this month agreed to pay an increase of about 30 per cent to retain Spanish LaLiga media rights across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Spain’s three major telcos have refused to match the Mediapro agency’s minimum asking price to carry coverage of the Uefa Champions League and Europa League, according to daily newspaper El País.

Imagina, parent company of the Mediapro agency, and Orient Hontai Capital have formally sealed a deal through which the Chinese private equity firm will acquire a majority stake in the Spanish media group.

Competition between sports-rights agencies has helped Spain’s LaLiga grow the value of its media rights in several new deals across Europe.

Spanish agency Mediapro said this week it wanted to create and distribute a Serie A league channel on the same model as the LaLiga channel it distributes in Spain. But Italian law may make this impossible.

Spain’s anti-trust regulator, the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y La Competencia (CNMC), has closed an investigation into Mediapro in relation to possible anti-competitive practices concerning the beIN Sports and beIN LaLiga pay-television channels marketed by the agency.

Chinese investment fund Orient Hontai has ratified a deal to acquire a controlling stake in Imagina, the parent company of the Mediapro agency, according to Spanish newspaper El Confidencial.

Lega Serie A, the organising body of the top division of Italian club football, is set to enter into private negotiations over its media rights with Spanish agency Mediapro after talks with broadcasters failed to result in an agreement satisfying its goals for its next domestic contract.

Fox Sports Latin America’s deal for Formula One rights in the region is less valuable than Mediapro’s recently broken agreement, but much more expensive than the pay-television broadcaster’s previous deals

Strong competition was the primary reason for the value of Champions League and Europa League rights in Spain increasing by about 77 per cent late last month.

Lagardère Sports and Mediapro deals illustrate the inroads international agencies continue to make in the Latin American sports-rights market.

Second-round bids for Portuguese Primeira Liga international rights have once again fallen below Sport TV’s expectations, despite a five-way agency shootout.