LaLiga president Javier Tebas spoke this Thursday about the rise of TV football piracy in Spain, describing it as a growing problem for the sport. He called for a new legal framework that would help curb illegal broadcasts more effectively across the country.
During a breakfast organized by Europa Press on the topic of piracy in sporting events, Tebas noted that viewership data from Kantar Media shows an increase in audiences, while subscriptions to paid platforms do not keep pace. He emphasized the question many fans raise: why do more people watch if fewer pay for subscriptions? Tebas pointed out that Kantar reports attendance figures tied to the contracted operator, and current estimates indicate that about 14% of football viewers access content without a rights-backed platform such as Movistar, Orange, or Dazn. This share has risen by roughly four percentage points over the past three seasons, a figure he called very high.
Anti-piracy technology
Tebas argued that LaLiga already employs top-tier technology and is committed to fighting piracy within the limits of the current legal framework. He believes more must be done, urging the government and political groups to advance a new law that would streamline and accelerate the suppression of illegal sports broadcasts and other content, including TV series and films.
According to Tebas, LaLiga blocks hundreds of IP addresses each week with court-backed injunctions to prevent internet service providers from routing them. Yet he noted that thousands more such sources exist and continue to surface. He urged moving this enforcement into the administrative sphere and proposed appointing a reliable whistleblower aligned with European Union recommendations. He highlighted that if similar measures existed in other major markets, as seen in some European peers, piracy could be significantly reduced.
Tebas also referenced proposals from the European body for regulating permitting mechanisms across countries and for swift action against IPs that illegally offer TV signals. At present, LaLiga and other affected organizations rely mainly on commercial actions to fight this phenomenon. He stressed that the technology exists, but a final legal step is needed to shut down piracy once and for all.
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Five million downloads
Tebas pointed to the scale of the problem in app stores. He explained that free football viewing apps on Google Play and the Apple Store have recorded massive download numbers in the opening days of LaLiga. Worldwide, these pirated apps have been downloaded close to five million times, with about 900,000 downloads in Spain. At the European level, there are more than a million downloads on Apple devices, with an estimated 300,000 in Spain.
Another challenge, he added, is that about 45% of these apps remain usable even after they are removed from app stores. When a user first downloads a pirated app, it can still function long after its official removal, prolonging access to illegal streams.