In Spain football teams negotiate individually with broadcasters for the right to show matches. If that was the case in England, Manchester United and Chelsea could strike their own deals and smaller top flight clubs would lose out.
Last week in Spain the satellite broadcaster Digital Plus concluded a series of football rights deals. Digital Plus is part owned by Telecinco (T5) which is the leading television group in Spain and is controlled by Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset.
In Spain football teams negotiate individually with broadcasters for the right to show matches. If that was the case in England, Manchester United and Chelsea could strike their own deals and smaller top flight clubs would lose out.
Last week in Spain the satellite broadcaster Digital Plus concluded a series of football rights deals. Digital Plus is part owned by Telecinco (T5) which is the leading television group in Spain and is controlled by Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset.
Digital Plus concluded deals with Real Zaragoza, Real Sociedad and Atletico Bilbao. Analysts think that these deals show that it is being taken seriously in football negotiations. In the longer run Digital Plus could well do a deal with Mediapro which owns the rights to the home games of the country’s two top clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid.
This would consolidate all games into one package, which would benefit consumers and the television industry, but might not be good news for clubs and top teams in particular. However, it should be noted that Spanish consumers have been having a hard time and that has a knock on effect on advertisers. Spanish television, both pay and advertising-supported, is facing big challenges and that has implications for football.