Telefónica (Spain)

Increased exclusivity encouraged telco Telefónica to maintain its fee to renew Formula One media rights in Spain this month despite a dearth of competition.

The Euroleague has earned an increase of almost 170 per cent on the value of its media rights in Spain, reviving the property’s fortunes in the territory after a tough sales process last time.

LaLiga president Javier Tebas this week described the Spanish league’s new domestic media rights deals as “historic” in terms of income and the completion of the move to collective selling.

England’s Premier League has almost doubled its income in recently-agreed deals covering 11 territories across Europe.

Interview with LaLiga president Javier Tebas on the first centralised tender for Spanish domestic football rights.

Spain’s top-tier basketball league, the Liga ACB, this week defended its decision to switch coverage exclusively to pay-television from next season following a three-season deal with telco Telefónica.

Interview with Mario Hernando, director of media (communications and TV) at Spain’s top-tier basketball Liga ACB, about its move to pay-television in this month’s deal with telco Telefónica.

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.

The Royal Decree that paves the way for the collective selling of Spanish Liga media rights generated fallout – a week of strike threats, insults and posturing by all sides – which diverted attention from what remains a momentous change in Spanish football.

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.

The Mediapro agency has acquired the domestic and international media rights to 39 of the 42 clubs from the Primera Liga and Segunda Liga, the top two divisions of Spanish club football, in one season-deals for the 2015-16 season.

Deutsche Telekom’s surprise deal for exclusive domestic basketball rights in Germany last week is small in value but potentially rich in significance.

Interview with William Field, founder of Prospero, the media and technology consultancy, on the return of telcos to the sports-rights market.