By Jonathan Easton
Spanish football league LaLiga is reportedly planning on launching a DTC streaming service for the domestic market.
According to Spanish online paper El Confidencial, a proprietary streaming platform is a key part of plans to drive up earnings for the league and comes after LaLiga agreed to sell a 10 per cent stake of the league to CVC Capital Partners for €2.7 billion(US$3.2billion).
Such a platform would not launch until at least 2023, when LaLiga’s current broadcasting rights deal with Teléfonica expires. The pay TV operator pays €1 billion per season for the rights and also has a sublicensing deal with Orange.
The report goes on to note that a LaLiga streamer would be aggressively priced at around €13 per month, a fraction of what existing football fans pay to watch the league via Teléfonica’s Movistar pay TV service.
Should LaLiga launch a proprietary streaming service it would be the first of Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues to do so, following a failed attempt from France’s Ligue 1 as a part of its short-lived distribution deal with Mediapro.