Pay-TV giant will air matches from the Spanish cup throughout the next three seasons
The world famous Copa del Rey will be broadcast on Movistar+ for the next three seasons after the Telefonica-owned pay-TV goliath picked up the TV rights in a deal said to be worth €14m a year.
Under this new agreement, Movistar+ will have the right to broadcast 55 Copa del Rey encounters per season for the next three years, as well as the whole of the Spanish Super Cup.
The Super Cup now consists of a four team tournament held in Saudi Arabia every January. Having previously been a traditional one-off game between the winners of Spain's domestic league and cup, - the English equivalent being the Community Shield - the Super Cup now involves the winners and runners up of La Liga and the Copa del Rey, with the four sides facing off in two semi finals, before the winners meet in the final to declare the champions.
As well as airing 55 Copa del Rey games per season, Movistar+ will also provide coverage of all four Super Cup matches.
The RFEF (Spanish Football Federation) and the broadcaster reportedly came to an agreement after an initial tender requesting a minimum of €22m per season for the rights to both tournaments attracted no bidders.
While Movistar+ becomes the pay-TV broadcast partner of the Copa del Rey, Spanish free-to-air broadcaster RTVE recently won the rights to air 15 matches per season until 2025, including both semi finals and the final.
Spanish football's governing body has said it hopes to bring in more than €120m from the next Copa del Rey TV rights cycle. This will involve increasing revenue generated from global markets, something which the Spanish Cup has already managed to do with the value of its TV rights in the United States, Canada and Mexico all rising in recent years. Values in the US and Canada are up by 27%, while those in Mexico and Latin America have risen by 42%.
Like all football federations, the RFEF is attempting to maximise revenue generated from the TV rights of its competitions in order to compete with other leagues around Europe and the world.
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