LaLiga explores selling televised football without middlemen from 2027

they seem Two holes for LaLiga, two unsuccessful attempts to sell some of your product because no one cares. However, Javier Tebas and his team interpret it this way: opportunity to discover a change in norms traditional football market on television. And they emphasize that in both competitions they have the option to choose a second term to receive new bids and they give up on that.

In both cases, the alternative chosen is marketing parties on a “non-exclusive basis”. “If LaLiga were to market it on a non-exclusive basis, the audio-visual content describes, among other parameters, the number of users, promotion, distribution of the respective operator and the characteristics of the two competitions, as reported by El Periódico de España.

Two months

In the clubs’ offices, they are working on how to shape the marketing of the two packages that were not given due to the lack of total bids. It’s also a process that, given its time, cannot be excessively delayed. the new season will start in a little over two months. And starting a new course without anyone watching the Second One or playing football in bars is, of course, an unconsidered option.

In the case of Division Two and no details are provided, LaLiga is working on a more traditional marketing model. Right now the idea is to break the competition apart. different parties divided by number of matches per day and time zones, presenting them to different operators. The option of making agreements with regional television channels to broadcast the meetings of the reference teams is also being considered.

Telefónica, which owns all major football competitions directly or through deals with Dazn, is emerging as one of the interested parties, although it has not made a special offer for the package. Industry sources interpret the lack of offers from both Movistar and other operators as a problem. Possible business strategy to reduce the final cost from the operation. In the previous competition, Telefónica had paid 35 million annually for meetings in the silver category.

deal with DAZN

Big change in the short term is coming in the accommodation market. As 2Playbook progresses, and this paper confirms, LaLiga has acquired the bar business from Dazn for around 150m euros to take advantage of Formula 1, MotoGP and the Premier League, among other competitions LaLiga rights. From there, there are two paths: on the one hand, we sell the product to third-party operators (Movistar, Vodafone, Orange…). various channels to be included in commercial packages; on the other hand, direct marketing outside of telecommunications with hotel businesses such as OTT (a platform for publishing content over the internet in the form of an application).

This latter option is LaLiga’s long-term strategy for selling all television rights to Major League games, including the star party. Tebas’ ideal is to stop being dependent on telecoms for the commercialization of its product. directly to the final consumer. Largely because at the offices on Calle Torrelaguna they get this. Telefónica’s strategy to sell football in bundles with internet, mobile and other services punishes clubs, because it limits the number of users who can economically access football. They say that if the football was sold separately, it would be cheaper and therefore more people could subscribe.

pilot tests

Considering this future, LaLiga is already doing its preliminary work. For several years, Asobal has owned LaLiga Sports TV, an OTT that broadcasts sports competitions such as the Handball League, the National Futsal League or the second Spanish basketball competition, LEB Oro. A test bed for developing and improving technology It is necessary in the future to be able to meet the needs of a product that is in greater demand than the competitions it has released so far.

Outside of Spain, LaLiga has also begun to explore autonomous and independent marketing. In April, the Tebas team launched the LaLiga Pass in Indonesia and Thailand. direct subscription for users in these countries, it’s in the image of what the NBA has been doing for years.

It’s a final move for LaLiga to launch their own platform, which is unhindered in any case. Pay TV platform operators who already have work experience, commercial and technological challenges launching an OTT in a segment as special as televised football.

“The direct use of football rights sounds good. It looks very attractive. But it’s extremely complex,” warns a telecommunications industry executive. “It is very difficult to use a product like football separately commercially., without being part of a package with other television content (TV series, movies, other sports…) or other services (phone, internet…). For football alone, it is very difficult to find customers and place the product at a sufficient price to be profitable”.

“It will never happen”

From the telecom industry, direct exercise of rights by LaLiga is considered a project that will never happen because it means: football clubs would take all the risk without sharing it with other operators. as it is now and in practice 90% of their income was played with a gimmick. “Is LaLiga willing to risk €1,000 million in annual revenue by selling directly to the end customer? Will you get enough customers to generate this volume of revenue? At what price? Will someone pay 40 euros a month just for football? If clubs charge 10 euros a month, can they find enough customers to make the business profitable? This will never happen”, cite sources from the telecommunications business.

In parallel, they point out the technical complications of taking advantage of televised football from one of the major TV platforms through an operator that does not have its own telecommunication network. “Today, if you don’t have direct control of the network, it gets harder to manage traffic to ensure excellent broadcast quality and there are latency issues as well.” However, there are some problems that are assumed to be resolved in the coming years with the introduction of next-generation 5G communications.

Because this horizon is set for 2027 at the earliest., Telefónica and Dazn when the recently signed agreement on the exercise of Part One rights expires. LaLiga will then launch a new auction where clubs will bid on a company of their own if all goes as planned. There they must win (through sealed envelopes delivered to CSD) offers to third party operators who may be interested.