Spanish soccer's LaLiga has provisionally awarded a package of domestic rights to Mediapro for the next two seasons. This comes after the media rights and production agency retracted its contestation of LaLiga's decision to award its next production services contract to another company.
LaLiga concluded the first phase of its request for bids process for free-to-air (FTA) rights to top-tier LaLiga and second-tier Segunda Division between 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons, with four lots put out to tender. Mediapro has provisionally secured Lot 5 - the right to air one Segunda Division match per matchday, and Lot 6 - the rights to show 12-minute delayed highlights of matches in both divisions, including promotion playoffs.
However, LaLiga failed to award Lot 4 in this phase which includes FTA rights for broadcasting one match from LaLiga per matchday due to not reaching the minimum reserve price set at around €14 million. A second round of bidding is now being called by governing body for these rights.
Marketing final lots
LaLiga also announced plans on marketing final Lot 9 – clips or summaries lasting up-to-90 seconds from all matches across both tiers including playoffs – on a “non-exclusive basis” in this second round. Earlier this month, strong revenue growth was reported by La Liga across their campaign during season 2023-24 which was boosted by broadcast income amounting €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion).
Telecoms giant Telefonica along with sports streaming service DAZN hold main domestic rights package until end of season in year 2026-27 as part of deal originally struck back in December year before last. Mediapro's new rights package adds to other LaLiga rights, which include international distribution through the 2028-29 season. However, this deal excludes North America, the Middle East, and North Africa.
This comes five days after Mediapro announced it “withdraws and fully retracts” its statement contesting the tender process carried out by LaLiga to award its next broadcast production services contract to Host Broadcast Services (HBS).
Controversy
HBS and Telefonica Services Audiovisuales (TSA) were selected by Spanish League following a selection process that began last September. They will act as production partners for both divisions from start of 2025-26 season until end of 2029-30 campaign – taking over from Mediapro.
Initially, Mediapro vowed to challenge LaLiga's decision stating that selection process was not carried out fairly and would harm clubs and competition both economically as well as in terms of broadcast quality.
However, now they have retracted their statement saying it "stemmed from a premature assessment of the tender process" with claims that were unsubstantiated. They also withdrew any suggestion about lack of transparency or secrecy in tender process or potential detrimental outcome for clubs or competition.
