Telefonica pays $1.15 bn for Spanish football video rights

Telefonica has made a payment of 980 million euros or $1.15 billion per season for packages of television rights to screen Spanish football matches over the next three seasons until 2022, boosting its strategy to capture pay-TV viewers through premium content, Reuters reported.

Telefonica will have direct control over the domestic TV rights for first division matches, screenings of which will carry Telefonica’s Movistar branded label.

Spain’s La Liga soccer league said it awarded television rights for bars and international TV channels to Mediapro. The total cost for the packages of TV rights was 3.4 billion euros, La Liga said.

Telefonica is banking on boosting its Movistar+ pay-TV service by offering premium content like soccer matches and producing original Spanish-language drama series.