Sky Sports will remain the home of La Liga for the next three seasons after striking a new deal to broadcast live games from Spanish football’s top flight.
Subscribers will be able to continue following Real Madrid, Barcelona and the stars of Spanish football as part of a schedule of over 100 live La Liga matches a season, including the mouth-watering ‘El Clasico’ fixtures, as well as regular games from the Copa del Rey, won last season by Barcelona.
There had been strong speculation that Spanish football rights were heading to BT Sport after Sky dramatically pulled out of the bidding process, which was in protest at its initial offer being turned down by Primera Liga rights holders Mediapro.
However, it is believed that the agency decided to accept Sky’s original bid, just as BT thought it was on the brink of completing its biggest sports rights coup since it blew its rival out of the water to land the UEFA Champions League games in a £897m deal in 2013.
The new agreement extends the partnership between Sky Sports and La Liga into its 20th year and bolsters the broadcaster’s football portfolio following the loss of Champions League football to BT this season.
Despite fierce competition for sports rights, primarily with BT since its launch in 2013, Sky’s deal with La Liga marks the 36th new rights agreement made by Sky in the last 18 months.
From 2016, Sky Sports will be bringing customers even more Premier League football, plus Open golf from 2017, as well England international and domestic cricket and a new five-year partnership with England Rugby.
Sky Sports’ football schedule for the upcoming season includes 116 matches from the Premier League, 127 matches from the Football League, Capital One Cup, UEFA Euro 2016 and FIFA 2018 World Cup qualifiers, SPFL and Scottish Cup, America’s MLS and Eredivisie.
Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports, said: “This is fantastic news for Sky Sports and strengthens our position as the first choice of sport in the UK and Ireland.
“The agreement means our viewers can enjoy the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Gareth Bale and Neymar week in, week out throughout the football season.
“Add to that the ‘El Clasico’ clash between Real Madrid and Barcelona in the league and Sky Sports viewers are sure to see some of the best football moments throughout the season.
“We’re proud to take our partnership with La Liga into its 20th year and remain the home of Spanish football for another three years.”
Javier Tebas, president of La Liga, added: “Sky Sports is the leading sports broadcaster for the UK and Ireland and we are delighted to continue our partnership with them for another three years.
“La Liga has a huge global fan base and by renewing with Sky Sports, the agreement provides us with the best possible way to showcase our league, our teams and our players to our UK and Irish audience.”
In a separate move, it has also been confirmed that LFP, the Spanish football league, has decided to move the kick-off for the Saturday teatime game back from 5.00pm to 5.15pm UK time to accommodate fans watching those games in Britain.
Broadcasting laws preventing live football being shown on UK television between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on Saturdays throughout the regular season, which resulted in blackouts of the first 15 minutes of La Liga matches that kicked off at 5.00pm UK time.
Aside from La Liga, BT Sport holds the rights to all other top European leagues, including Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1, Portugal’s Primeira Liga and Swiss League action.
Taking Sky’s Spanish football rights would have been a major coup for BT, calling into question Sky’s decision last year to launch a seventh dedicated sports channel – Sky Sports 5 – to showcase its European football portfolio last year.
A BT spokesperson told the Daily Telegraph: “BT is not surprised that Sky has retained rights to La Liga.
“The best games featuring the top Spanish teams will feature in our exclusively live rights to 351 premium quality matches from the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Europa League this season.”
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