Mediapro

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.

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.

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.

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

Spain’s LaLiga finalised the sale of its rights for 2016-17 to 2018-19 last month, taking its total domestic income over the cycle to at least €1,031.2m ($1,166.3m) per season.

Mediapro last week acquired the remaining two packages of domestic Spanish LaLiga rights for the three seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19, after a second round of bidding.

The Mediapro agency acquired a slate of Spanish LaLiga rights this week in order to fill the schedule of its recently-launched digital-terrestrial sports channel Gol.

Spanish agency Mediapro has agreed deals with video-sharing website YouTube to plug gaps in the distribution of the international rights to the Copa del Rey and the beIN Sports pay-television channels in Spain.

Spain’s LaLiga has reached its revenue target for international rights from 2015-16 with rights in some smaller territories left to sell, TV Sports Markets understands.

Spain’s LaLiga has leapfrogged Italy’s Serie A in media rights income to become Europe’s second most valuable league following deals agreed in recent weeks.

Spanish football’s ongoing rights shake-up continued during a fortnight in which collective selling was brought forward by the league and Mediapro was appointed its international marketing partner.

Weak competition for Europa League rights in Spain forced Uefa into lengthy negotiations with the beIN Media Group and the Mediapro agency, who were bidding jointly. A deal was eventually agreed last week.

Spanish club Barcelona said this week that the planned return to collective selling would help La Liga to eventually match or exceed the media-rights income of Italy’s Serie A, but that it would require the country’s pay-television industry to be much stronger.

Telefónica’s acquisition of all rights to two Primera Liga clubs, and its bid to acquire the rights to Spanish giant Barcelona, are aimed at strengthening the telco’s position ahead of changes in the domestic broadcast market.

Spanish agency Mediapro will dilute the exclusivity of its new Formula One channel in Latin America with a sublicensing deal because it felt the offer from Fox Sports was too good to refuse.