The decision by Vodafone to no longer offer its customers football from the 2019/20 season could cost Orange around €80 million a year.
According to El Economista, that is the additional amount that Orange will have to find to show all the games from La Liga, Champions League and Europa League for three seasons beginning 2019/20.
It adds that this is due to the breakdown of negotiations between Vodafone and Telefónica for the wholesale purchase of rights and assumes the latter does not find another buyer.
While the regulator CNMC can do little other than require Telefónica to offer at least half of its premium content to rivals and then oversee prices, both Orange and Telefónica stand to gain Vodafone customers who subscribed to football.
Vodafone Spain is of the view that movies and series are of greater interest to its pay-TV viewers than football.