Spain’s LaLiga has hit back at claims that that football TV rights are too expensive.
Quoted by Marca and El Economista, its president Javier Tebas challenged operators not to buy them.
His statement followed threats last week by the country’s three leading telcos Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange to stop broadcasting games because they are not willing to include football in their schedules at any price.
Tebas said that should this happen, LaLiga would pursue other strategies, adding that if the rights were too expensive he did not want to be “a participant in the bankruptcy of Telefónica”.
Significantly, he also said that should an agreement not be reached LaLiga would launch its own OTT platform offering Spanish football to viewers on a subscription basis.
LaLiga will shortly open talks on the sale of the rights for three seasons, beginning 2019-2020, and is expecting to receive a total of €1.3 billion the duration of the contract.
However, in LaLiga’s view, they should cost up to €1.7 billion.
