Spanish clubs reap benefits of new rights model

Clubs in LaLiga, the top division of Spanish football, benefitted from a €388.7m ($463.2m) rise in revenue distributed from broadcast rights sales during the 2016-17 season, demonstrating the benefits of the switch to a centralised selling model.

Spanish newspaper AS said LaLiga distributed €1.387bn to its member clubs, with an audit report pointing to the new rights model and an increase in value of the league’s international rights.

LaLiga will earn at least €983m per season over three seasons, from 2016-17 to 2018-19, solely in deals with pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports and telecommunications firms Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange.

This was made possible after a tender of 10 packages covering rights to the top-tier LaLiga, second-tier Segunda Division, and the Copa del Rey cup competition closed in December 2015, after one round of bidding.

It marked the first time Spanish domestic football rights had been sold on the open market. Collective selling of domestic football rights from the 2016-17 season was enabled by Royal Decree in May 2015, and brought forward in June to include the 2015-16 season.

AS added that LaLiga’s net revenue for 2016-17 totalled €1.635.9bn, a rise of €395.2m on 2015-16, mainly due to the increase in income from broadcast rights.