Many articles deal with the La Liga TV wars in Spain yet again between MEDIAPRO and PRISA (formerly SogaCable.) http://www.adslzone.tv/2012/08/01/e...as-tres-primeras-jornadas-perjudican-a-canal/ GOLTV USA was caught up in the last La Liga TV war in 2006 as SogaCable/Audiovisual Sport prevented MEDIAPRO from transmitting most La Liga matches to international audiences. This time around, PRISA has threatened to hire an agency other than MEDIAPRO to sell international rights to the matches it controls, including Osasuna vs Barcelona and Getafe vs Real Madrid on Sunday August 26 at 1pm ET (1900 CET.) Stay tuned to this mess.
Spain is a country with a unemployment rate of about 25%, and on the verge of total collapse...With a looming default (an exit from the Euro), I wouldn't be surprised to see more clubs going under or defaulting due to falling revenues and huge liabilities on their balance sheet. If the situations worsens (which i expect it will), you are going to see a few other countries defaulting and the eventual downfall of the Euro...This could have negative consequences for clubs who operate withing those countries (Spain, Portugal, Italy)...Greece is already impacted (it shows during the Olympics). The downfall of the Ranger (in the Scottish league) is just the start of the process. Many of the Italians big clubs carry huge liabilities ... As you can see with TV rights, it is desperation time for many of these platforms as well.
According to this article, 12 La Liga clubs out of 20 have signed with PRISA: http://www.sundaytv.es/web/index.ph...-de-television&catid=46:grupo-prisa&Itemid=77 Sevilla, Atlético de Madrid, Valencia, Athletic Club Bilbao, Espanyol, Real Sociedad, Zaragoza, Betis, Málaga, Getafe, Celta y Osasuna
In order to "destroy" MEDIAPRO, PRISA is signing teams at any cost. Celta, a new first division team, just signed a contract with PRISA for 70 million euros for 3 years....... At. Madrid president Mr. Cerezo announced today that they may go to strike because of the scheduled times. They play their first game on Monday, and then few days later they will play Chelsea for the Europe Supercup. Regarding Madrid and Barca, as of today, only their homes games are secured to be broadcast internationally.
Spanish Soccer Federation is in favor of Mediapro, so that´s why they scheduled on the 2nd round Madrid and Barcelona at the same time since both games are away, and PRISA has the rights for those games
La Liga is a mess. I love the football, but because of all the hassle with Malaga, Bein, the inevitability of empty stadiums because of shitty scheduling and the lack of organization all around, The Premiere League will have most of my attention for the first time ever.
A British report claims that Malaga, Sevilla, and Valencia have signed with MEDIAPRO instead of PRISA. A Spanish report claims otherwise. This is a mess. 2 weeks to go before La Liga starts, if the clubs don't call for a delay.
If they played a season where only half their games were broadcast internationally would that decrease their revenue enough to level the playing field compared to the rest of La Liga?
Not true. Only Real Madrid and Barcelona matches, home and away against teams that have signed with MEDIAPRO are secured to be broadcast internationally. Real Madrid and Barcelona home matches against teams that have signed with PRISA will NOT have TV cameras in the stadium if PRISA does not give permission to allow TV cameras into the stadium. La Liga has the be the most backward major team sports enterprise in the world. Not even Serie A, which is as screwed up an enterprise as there is out there, is as dysfunctional as La Liga. The English Premier League is light years ahead of La Liga as a business.
In La Liga, the home team holds both domestic and international TV rights, but the away team must grant permission to the home team before TV cameras are allowed into the stadium. No permission from the away team, no TV cameras allowed in the stadium Antonio Briceño alluded to this rule in his interview with Multichannel News. I have confirmed this rule independently with an industry source.
Report from Spain: PRISA has now signed 13 clubs, as Granada has signed. The 13 PRISA clubs have issued an ultimatum to La Liga (LFP): change the kickoff times on week 2 (with Atletico de Madrid on Monday and both away matches featuring Barca and Real Madrid simultaneously on Sunday), or they will refuse to start the season on time. Deadline of August 14. MEDIAPRO is acting like a school yard bully, as usual.
This is inaccurate. Away teams can oppose the broadcast, but allowing cameras into the stadium is entirely up to the home team. Tell your industry source to brush up his distinctions.
Only ONE La Liga match on the weekend of August 18-20 will NOT be affected by the TV war: Real Madrid vs Valencia on Sunday August 19 at 12:55pm ET, as both teams signed with MEDIAPRO. The rest of the matches all involve at least one club that signed with PRISA.
Does anyone know that international broadcast rights are actually in dispute here? It is not outside the realm of possibility (has happened before) that games that are blocked in Spain can be broadcast abroad. My understanding is that the LFP tenders international rights separately for the whole league, and, as sketchy as Mediapro is, international broadcasts are the least likely to be affected.
The LFP does NOT tender any TV rights. Instead, each club sells its TV rights, domestic and international, to either MEDIAPRO or PRISA. In 2006, MEDIAPRO and PRISA (then known as Sogacable) had a dispute. Sogacable would NOT allow its domestic TV signals to go to MEDIAPRO for international transmission. This time around, PRISA has up the ante by threatening to hire an agency on its own to sell international rights instead of teaming up with MEDIAPRO. MEDIAPRO pre-sold international rights to all 380 La Liga matches. However, only 42 La Liga matches [(7 choose 2) x 2 = 7 x 6 = 42] are under 100% control of MEDIAPRO after 13 clubs sold their rights to PRISA. Again, La Liga is a side show in the grand scheme of things, especially in Canada, where EPL rules on weekend mornings and afternoons (and NHL rules after 7pm ET.) Only two La Liga matches matter on Canadian TV: Barcelona vs Real Madrid and Real Madrid vs Barcelona. Both are MEDIAPRO property and both are under control of beIN SPORT LLC for the next 3 seasons. (The SuperCopa de España will be on GOLTV Canada, as MLSE cut a deal with Santa Monica Sports for the SuperCopa, the Copa del Rey final, and Spanish national team home games. Deal runs through May 2014.)
Sorry, tender was maybe not be quite the right word. Clubs in Spain, with the obvious exceptions, are not international-business savvy. They wouldn't know what to do with international rights if they bit them in the ass. While what you describe is 100% correct for domestic rights, which are the ones that matter to most clubs (90% of income or so), my understanding is that the LFP does indeed bunch together international broadcast rights after agreeing on a process with all team rights holders (right now Prisa and Mediapro, although in the past there were others) to sell "packages" abroad, usually through a middleman that knows what they are doing (again, most clubs and most LFP head honchos don't). And please, it is Sogecable, not Sogacable.
There's truce among all parties for now (the web article is in Spanish, so you'll need Google Translate in translating to English).
Sorry to disappoint, but there is not a truce among all parties. The article says that the Liga will begin on tame with games played as scheduled. No truce or agreement has been reached between Mediapro and Prisa. There are seven teams -- Atletico Madrid, Osasuna, Zaragoza, Espanyol, Celta de Vigo, Getafe and Real Sociedad -- who have signed contracts with Prisa, but whose rights Mediapro also claims to hold. If no agreement is reached in the next couple days, what will likely happen is that channels/operators who have bought rights from Mediapro (beIN Sport in the U.S.) will have right to broadcast games of teams played at stadiums of Mediapro teams, which would be seven this weekend, including Real Madrid-Valencia and Barcelona-Real Sociedad. Whoever bought rights from Prisa - if anybody has - would be able to broadcast Celta-Malaga, Athletic Club-Betis and Zaragoza-Valladolid. Confused yet?
Sorry about the confusion. I quickly saw the headline and skimmed the information, supposedly it signals that there's a business peace among key players (or actors). So, I apologized for that.