2024-01-19 18:34:26
Telefónica and LaLiga They have found a way to get around the blockade of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) to the deadlines of the last major competition for television rights for the national football competition. The employers’ association of Spanish football clubs awarded almost equally between Telefónica and DAZN the television rights for five seasons, between 2022/23 and 2026/27, for 4,950 million euros (at a rate of 990 million per season). Each of the two operators was awarded five games per day, with the exception of three of them, which are only seen on Movistar+.
LaLiga signed the contracts with both successful bidders in January 2022. Dazn signed the agreement for the five committed seasons without further complications. Telefónica was unable to do so and its contract had a duration of only three years, waiting to obtain permission from the CNMC to extend it for another two years, as reported by El Periódico de España, from the Ibérica Prensa Group. Competition did not change its position and maintained the block on Telefónica being able to sign contracts for broadcasting rights for sporting events for periods of more than three years. A limitation that was inherited from the regulatory restrictions imposed to carry out the purchase of Canal Plus by the teleco in 2015.
To unblock the situation, LaLiga launched a new contest in the middle of Christmas to award the broadcast of the five matches and the three days exclusively in the hands of Telefónica for two and a half days. The winner of that contest, which has just been resolved, was Telefónica itself and it did so for exactly the same amounts as two years ago (at a rate of 520 million per season).
Movistar+ thus once again gains the rights to five games per day and three days exclusively for the 2024/25 season from January 20, 2025 (just when three years would have passed since the previous contract was signed) and for the entire 2025/26 and 2026/27 seasons. Telefónica will pay a total of 1,290 million euros: 250 million for the first half-season and 520 million for each of the remaining two seasons.
The legacy of Canal Plus
Telefónica imposed these restrictions on the audiovisual content firm through the purchase of Canal Plus in 2015. The CNMC then authorized the operation, but imposed a series of conditions on the telecom company to avoid competition problems and limit its dominant position in the television market. pay television, of which it obtained a tremendously majority share. Last April, Competition lifted the restrictions that were still in force once the imposed period expired, but the contract with LaLiga was prior to the end of the regulatory limitations and that is why they continued to apply to that agreement.
When LaLiga launched the last TV rights contest, Telefónica could only bid for LaLiga rights for three seasons. A circumstance that led to the unfavorable report from the CNMC itself regarding the conditions of the competition promoted by the organization chaired by Javier Tebas, which opened the door to offers for three, four or five seasons and which benefited the candidates with offers of a longer duration. contract they proposed.
Since said CNMC report was not binding, LaLiga ignored the reservation formulated by CNMC and kept the conditions of the auction intact. This was, a priori, a problem for Telefónica, given that the conditions of the contest gave priority to offers that covered a greater number of seasons, given that they guaranteed greater total income for the clubs.
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The operator unsuccessfully requested the regulator to lift this restriction so as not to be in inferior conditions with its rivals, and after partially winning the contest it ended up signing a contract for TV rights for the light competition for three years with the option of another two years. . But Competition did not give the go-ahead to execute this deadline extension clause, and LaLiga has resolved the mess by launching a new contest in which Telefónica has once again emerged as the winner.
Telefónica is guaranteed to be able to offer its customers all LaLiga matches until the end of the 2026/27 season after having reached an agreement with Dazn to also be able to include the five matches that it was awarded in the commercial offer of The agreement contemplated that Telefónica will pay to Dazn 1,400 million in five years, at a rate of 280 million per season. Telefónica also has the audiovisual rights to the Champions League and the Europa League until 2027, after winning the competition last year for three seasons for 960 million.
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