Spain's La Liga sells 2019-2022 TV rights for 1.14 billion euros per season

Madrid (AFP) – Spain’s La Liga announced Monday it had sold its 2019-2022 television rights for 1.14 billion euros ($1.33b) per season.

The four bids accepted for the Spanish market total 3.4 billion euros, an average of 1.14b euros for each of the coming three seasons, an increase of 15 percent on the last three seasons, La Liga said in a statement.

Spanish companies Telefonica and Mediapro were the successful bidders.

Eight lots went out to tender, with none reaching the reserve price, but La Liga decided to provisonally award four lots, saying it was confident the other four would be awarded in the “coming months”.

“With these provisonal results, La Liga highlights the growing value of Spanish football. The world’s best league is also a leader in the leisure and entertainment sector,” La Liga said.

La Liga president Javier Tebas said in March that he was aiming to secure 1.3b euros annually for the domestic rights to the 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, compared with 1.1 billion euros under the previous contract.

In November, Tebas had said that La Liga also hopes to secure a further billion euros for the international broadcasting rights, bringing the total amount per season to 2.3b euros.

Tebas was bullish Monday, however, saying he was “satisfied because this result is positive for all those who are part, directly or indirectly, of the Spanish football industry: clubs, winning bidders, sponsors and, especially, the football fans, win with this bidding process”.