By Fernando Kallas and Corina Pons
MADRID (Reuters) -Spain’s LaLiga has reached an agreement to sell its domestic broadcasting rights to Movistar and DAZN for 4.95 billion euros ($5.59 billion) over five years, it said in a statement on Monday.
The deal is a record for the top-flight soccer league as its last contract, signed with Telefonica in 2018, was a three-year agreement for 2.940 billion euros.
The rights will be split between the TV operator and the over-the-top (OTT) video streaming service. They will each have the rights to five games per week except for three weeks in the season when Movistar will have the rights to all matches.
The rights to broadcast matches to bars and restaurants and for the weekly game on non-subscription TV are not included in the deal and the bidding process for those will open in February or March 2022.
The agreement comes after clubs on Friday approved a 1.994 billion euro investment nL1N2SV19Q from private equity fund CVC Capital Partners in the first deal of its kind in Europe, although four clubs – including Barcelona and Real Madrid – opted out.
The so-called “LaLiga Boost” agreement gives CVC an 8.2% stake in a new company that will get revenues from LaLiga broadcasting and sponsorship rights.
LaLiga and CVC told Reuters in October that their objective was to recover in the medium-term the number of subscribers to pay TV soccer channels that were lost in Spain in recent years.
According to LaLiga data, subscribers have fallen from four million in 2016-17 to 2.5 million in 2020-21. CVC believe they can reach a figure of 4.4 million.
LaLiga and CVC are betting on building a larger fan base to improve revenues by offering more packages on different platforms for viewers watching soccer in Spain.
Both deals will help the clubs cover some of the huge losses incurred because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
LaLiga is the first of the top five European soccer leagues to reach an agreement for domestic TV rights which is higher than the previous one.
Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A and France’s Ligue 1 all saw a dip in revenue in their latest TV deals, while England’s Premier League rolled over its package on the same financial terms for three more seasons.
($1 = 0.8861 euros)
(Reporting by Fernando Kallas and Corina Pons; Editing by Ken Ferris)
