Spanish women's top-flight soccer league, Liga F, has announced a new rights tender seeking free-to-air coverage for its 2025-26 campaign. The move is aimed at expanding the reach of the league and providing more access to fans.
The tender will cover four matches per gameweek for the remainder of the season. Interested broadcasters also have an option to bid on similar rights for the 2026-27 campaign. The games will be broadcast on a non-exclusive basis, allowing primary rightsholder DAZN to simultaneously show these games on its platform.
DAZN has retained broadcasting rights for both domestic and international coverage of Liga F's current season. However, with an annual expenditure of €7.5 million on competition coverage, DAZN is looking to recoup some costs by bringing in other partners to sub-license coverage. A small number of non-exclusive rights for ten Liga F games through till end of 2025-26 are held by Catalan broadcaster TV3. These were sub-licensed from DAZN and fellow rightsholder MediaPro and are focused around matches involving Catalan clubs Barcelona, Espanyol, and FC Badalona.
Bidding process timeline
Liga F has stated that interested bidders can submit written inquiries about the tender by January 22nd with responses due to be published a day later. One potential bidder could be public-service broadcaster RTVE which recently bolstered its free-to-air offering by acquiring rights to men’s LaLiga top-flight last week. RTVE secured one fixture each gameweek live on its Teledeporte terrestrial channel for the remainder of this campaign starting with Espanyol vs Girona match-up scheduled for January 16th.
DAZN's move to sub-license rights is part of its strategy to alleviate its heavy media rights burden. As of December 31, 2024, the company stated it still has $9.8 billion in media rights commitments to pay over the coming years. This figure does not represent a financial liability given its relationship to the company’s primary revenue stream.
However, easing this burden is crucial for DAZN as it seeks profitability in the near future. The OTT broadcaster has lost over $10 billion across the last decade and generated a net loss of $961.5 million in 2024 alone. Liga F's decision to launch a free-to-air broadcast tender could be beneficial for both parties involved - providing more exposure for women’s soccer while helping DAZN offset some costs.
