The Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y La Competencia (CNMC), Spain’s competition regulator, has unveiled a series of recommendations it has made to LaLiga, the organising body of the top two divisions of Spanish club football, for its next domestic rights tender.
The CNMC has indicated that LaLiga must modify aspects related to access to stadia, the linking of tenders, match time slots and advertising obligations, among others. LaLiga rights are currently being marketed in certain overseas markets and a domestic tender for rights from the 2019-20 to 2021-22 seasons is poised to be launched.
The CNMC has detailed a series of eight main recommendations for LaLiga to assess and modify the tender as requested. These are headlined by the complete elimination of one of the 10 packages that LaLiga is seeking to sell. This is Lot 7, which allows for the joint purchase of lots four and five.
The tender drafted by LaLiga allows packages to be acquired individually, with the exception of Lot 7. This could potentially allow the same pay-television operator to capture the main core of rights tendered by LaLiga, which the CNMC has taken exception to.
LaLiga president Javier Tebas has said LaLiga expects to earn €2.3bn ($2.9bn) per season from its media rights within three seasons. LaLiga currently generates around €1bn per season for its domestic rights, and a further €650m per season from its international rights. Tebas said new contracts should bring in about €1.3bn per season for domestic rights and €1bn per season internationally, if negotiations progress smoothly.
In an interview this month with Spanish newspaper AS, Tebas said LaLiga wants to have new domestic deals settled by the end of the 2017-18 season, adding that Barcelona and Real Madrid are expected to gain around €220m per season in the next cycle, with the lowest-ranked clubs set to secure around €60m.