Competition Notifies the League that "should be eliminated by the possibility of submitting offers for a period of four and / or five seasons" in the commercialization of the emission rights of the regular championship, as it intends to do so the National League of Professional Football.
In the report of the National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC) published on Thursday, the Agency also requests the agency led by Javier Thebes "the reason why all the lots are limited to their exploitation by payment television operators and not It is allowed to tender operators in open ".
That is, two of the tracks that Laliga had found to attract interested parties (trust payment operators but expand operating periods so that they maximize their disbursements) have come up with the supervisor chaired by Cani Fernández.
In the organism that Javier Thebes leads are convinced that five-year deadlines promote distribution and competition in the audiovisual soccer business. Competition, on the contrary, disagree. However, the newly known report, requested on September 21, is not binding, so that the soccer institution will be able to follow its plan drawn without taking into account the pears manifested by the CNMC. Sources from the sector close to the process and consulted by the world, they assume that Laliga will hear deaf ears to competition warnings.
The body chaired by thebes also has reports of legal offices that support their thesis of giving the jump at five years. In Laliga, they believe that a greater period would repergive even in the price to pay for customers, which would be less the longer the agreed marketing period, since there are operators that do not go into line by the temporary limitation of investments. It is true that other countries such as Germany and France have advanced in that line, since they are already selling commercial rights for four years.
According to the point of view of Thebes, the current three-year structure harms competition between operators and has led more than two million viewers in Spain who, even having access to payment channels, do not follow or can not follow the soccer. In fact, an operator like Vodafone has already renounced to offer it to its customers, while in Orange they say they will dispense with that content if the price does not seem adjusted. The latest football broadcast rights, for three years, were acquired by Telefónica, who could then market them to third parties as Orange itself. The Spanish multinational, chaired by José María Álvarez-Pallet, was made with league broadcast rights from 2019 to 2022 by 2,040 million euros.
The next step will be the review of the report by Laliga, and modify if it deems it appropriate for the procedure for the request of the Bids attending or not the CNMC criteria, which would take around a week. Subsequently, the document will be taken to the Audiovisual Laliga Rights Management Control Body for approval, which would occur around October 26.
Thus, already endorsed, the procedure would be published at the end of October or early November. Then, audiovisual operators will have a period of four weeks to submit their offers, which will ultimately be revealed to Laliga, by opening envelopes in the Superior Council of Sports, and at the end of November or early December of this year.
Date Of Update: 21 October 2021, 21:50
