LaLiga has started the procedure to commercialize its audiovisual rights in the Spanish residential market starting from the 2027-2028 season. And as usual, the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) analyzed the conditions established, with several common criticisms on some of its points: the duration of the contract or the composition of the lots.
Royal Decree Law 5/2015 allowed LaLiga, for 10 years, to centrally market competition rights, but also stipulates that the CNMC must supervise the procedure, issuing a non-binding report analyzing the conditions. The document, made public this Thursday, reminds the body chaired by Javier Tebas that it must “stick to the powers” granted to it by the royal decree, i.e. the commercialization of rights, and not that of signal producer, something that the CNMC has already underlined in similar reports of previous tenders.
The competition authority also asks you not to imply that you are the owner of “rights not recognised” by the aforementioned decree. That is, the rights are owned by the clubs, but LaLiga has the power to market them; as well as “limit the collaboration obligations on the part of the successful tenderer or those essential for marketing”.
The report concerns a common friction with LaLiga: the extension of the contract. The CNMC has always maintained that the award should cover a maximum of three seasons, while the award procedure speaks of a range of three “which would allow not to close the market of audiovisual rights offered for an excessively long period of time”.
In the latest tender, signed in December 2021, LaLiga awarded the rights to Telefónica and Dazn for an initial period of five years, ignoring the recommendations of the CNMC. However, at the end of 2023 LaLiga repeated the award process to Telefónica for the last two years of the initial contract, given a potential “legal uncertainty” due to the potential collision with the conditions that the CNMC itself set for the telecom when purchasing Digital+.
In addition to the duration of the contract, the CNMC highlights the content of the lots themselves. LaLiga has devised a total of six lots, including two in which the potential winner would exclusively broadcast nine of the ten matches of each matchday, not counting the one broadcast openly due to legal imperative. According to the competition, the design of the lots must “avoid structuring of options and lots that lead to the concentration of rights in a single successful bidder”. Other lots include the assignment of seven and three matches, and five and five, as currently happens for the rights held by Telefónica and Dazn until the 2026-2027 season.
