Broadcasters will now be able to bid for five seasons of rights instead of three
The bidding process for domestic broadcast rights to show La Liga matches has now begun. The process will deal with the sale of those rights for games starting from next season (2022/23) and will include Andorra.
Previously, companies could only bid for three season periods but La Liga have extended this to five seasons, while allowing broadcasters to choose between bids of three, four or five seasons as they wish. This move was made despite recommendation to the contrary from CNMC, the country's competition authority, which suggested the league abandon any course for a five season bid and restrict offers to only three seasons. Any deal secured by broadcasters could also be more nuanced than before. There are several different options available to bidders for both terrestrial and non-terrestrial TV.
When all bids have been heard, La Liga will award the rights to the bidder of its choosing in accordance with its own procedures. The deadline for placing bids for this content is next month, 13 December 2021. In the meantime, broadcasters can put questions to La Liga regarding the procedure, content, etc until 24 November 2021, after which point they must decide whether or not to bid, and formalise any offers.
La Liga will be hoping to secure a lucrative deal but expectations will be tempered by the drop in value witnessed across other major European leagues. Rights to Serie A went down in value, Ligue 1 endured a fiasco with its rights and the Premier League decided to skip any auction altogether and renew its existing deals with broadcasters in order to at least secure the same value as before.
The Spanish top flight has decided to go ahead with the auction in the hope of increasing revenue but this could backfire and see a drop in TV rights income when the bidding process is complete.
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