Spanish football, up for auction

The Spanish football league has opened this Wednesday the period for receiving offers for the commercialization of television rights in Spain and Andorra, with the possibility that interested companies can bid for up to five seasons from the 2022-23 campaign.

The seven options offered by LaLiga, divided into several lots, are intended for broadcast to residential audiences in Spain and Andorra in pay television format, with the main differences in the extension of the number of seasons for which operators can make offers, from three to five campaigns.

“The increase in the number of seasons allows a greater number of audiovisual operators to be interested by the present procedure “, has indicated the employer’s association of Spanish soccer clubs in a communiqué.

Likewise, the association defends that increasing the number of options and lots “allows interested operators to choose the option or options that best suit their preferences or exploitation capabilities.”

As of this Tuesday, a deadline for submitting offers opens that will end on December 13, 2021 at 12:00 hours, and interested operators will be able to send their queries until November 24, 2021, which will be answered on the official LaLiga website on December 1, 2021.

On December 20, the period for rectifying defects or omissions will end and on December 22, a provisional award will be made., which must be substantiated in the signing of contracts in 20 business days after that date, as detailed in the document of the tender request procedure.

This 111-page document describes the seven delivery options, divided in turn into different lots, which differ in the number of matches that the operator who buys each lot can issue.

In option A, the distribution is 8 games of each day in a lot, one in another and another open to be awarded later; in B there are 9 games in one lot and one in the other; in C there are 7 in one lot and 3 in the other; and in D there are 5 matches in each lot.

Options B, C and D have an additional variant ‘bis’ that introduces a batch of three full days for a single operator, in the style of what the English Premier League has done with Amazon on the day of ‘Boxing Day’, the day after the Christmas party.

The options proposed by LaLiga for audiovisual offers as of the 2022-23 season they are as follows:

– Option A: includes a lot A1 with 8 First-round matches per day in third choice (after A2 and the open match) and the ‘Real Madrid-Barcelona Classic’ of the first round; and a batch A2 with one match per day of the First Division, in first choice.

– Option B: lot B1 with 9 First-round matches in second choice (one of them open), including the ‘Classic’ of the first round, and a B2 lot with one First-round match, in first choice.

– Option B bis: batch B1 bis with 9 First-round matches per day in the second election (except for the 3 matches of batch B3 bis) and the ‘Classic’ of the first round; lot B2 bis of one match per day in first choice; and lot B3 bis that includes the 10 matches of three First Days.

– Option C: lot C1 with 7 first-round matches per day and the ‘Clásico’ in the second round; and lot C2 with 3 matches per day and the ‘Clásico’ of the first round.

– Option C bis: lot C1 bis with seven games per day (except the 3 games of lot C3 bis) and the ‘Classic’ of the second round, lot C2 bis with 3 games per day and the ‘Classic’ of the first round; and lot C3 bis with the 10 games of three days.

– Option D: lot D1 with 5 First-round matches, including the ‘Clásico’ from the second round; lot D2 with five First-round matches, including the ‘Clásico’ of the first round.

– Option D bis: batch D1 bis with 5 First round matches (except for the 3 rounds of batch D3 bis), including the ‘Clásico’ of the second round, batch D2 bis with five First round matches, including the ‘Clásico’ of the first round; and batch D3 bis with the 10 games of three days.