LaLiga launches UK free-to-air rights tender as ITV deal comes to end
Spanish football’s LaLiga has launched a media rights tender for free-to-air coverage of games in the United Kingdom.
Two packages are on offer to British and Irish broadcasters: the first for exclusive access to all LaLiga matches, and the second for free-to-air matches scheduled for 8pm on Sunday evenings.
ITV Sport has been the host broadcaster for the free-to-air games on a three-year deal that began during the 2022-23 season.
Premier Sports – who play host to the Investec Champions Cup and French Top 14 rugby – holds the exclusive rights to the Spanish league. That three-year deal concludes this summer.
It is part of a range of media rights packages LaLiga are offering out to tender.
In its request for offers, the Spanish league said: “LaLiga’s prestige has surmounted national boundaries. There is an increasing worldwide interest in the competition and LaLiga stirs passion among football fans.
“This is the reason why LaLiga aims at achieving an authentic audiovisual experience for fans outside Spain. This entails a powerful high-quality broadcast equipped with the latest audiovisual technology.”
The parties are also encouraged to take the second-tier Segunda Division rights.
Further afield the likes of Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Belgium and Switzerland are markets with new tenders up for grabs.
Not all nations have LaLiga rights up for grabs from this summer, unlike the UK and Ireland.
Current pay-TV broadcaster Premier Sports has also picked up the broadcasting rights to the final stages of the Copa del Rey knockout, the Spanish version of the FA Cup.
It will show the second legs of the semi-finals – between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, and Real Madrid and Real Sociedad – in the first week of April.
The broadcaster will then show the final on 26 April at the 60,000-capacity Estadio De La Cartuja in Seville, southern Spain.