After an intense period of negotiations, Spain’s leading telco giant, Telefonica, has successfully maintained the exclusive rights to broadcast games from La Liga, the elite of Spanish men’s football. The agreement will allow matches to be streamed via their Movistar plus service until the conclusion of the 2026-27 season.
Telefonica has secured permission to air five out of the ten live matches each week and has committed to expenditure of €1.29 billion to ensure this privilege. This win follows the mandate by Spain’s competition regulator, the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC), to re-tender the broadcasting rights which were initially agreed upon with streaming platform DAZN and Telefonica until the end of the 2026-27 season.
The CNMC’s intervention was based on standings that Telefonica shouldn’t have been permitted to purchase the broadcasting rights for a period surpassing three years, a condition traced back to their acquisition of pay TV operator Digital+ in 2015. In an interesting change of situation, however, this duration restriction has now been lifted, opening a window for Telefonica to participate and triumph in a new tender process.
The financial figures involved in this win total to €250 million for the 2024/25 season and €520 million for each of the subsequent two seasons (2025/26 and 2026/27). Rather than inducing competition, this newly obtained tender will not impinge on the rights currently owned by DAZN, which also extend till the termination of the 2026-27 season.
