Standard group Sky has lost the rights to screen matches from Spain’s top soccer associate La Liga in the U.K. and Ireland to television group Eleven Sports, dealing a increase e inflate to a company that is currently the subject of a bidding war between Fox and Comcast.
For the finish finally two decades, Spanish football has been shown live on Sky television, but the broadcaster wrecked out on the rights to screen the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid from this summer until the end of the 2020/21 ready.
Full details of how Eleven Sports plans to screen the matches sooner a be wearing yet to be made clear, as the company currently doesn’t have a television channel in the U.K or Ireland. In all events, it has been suggested that matches could be streamed online or sedate offered back to Sky, which would then televise games as a unoriginal broadcaster.
Losing rights to La Liga, which is one of the most popular European soccer combinations, marks a setback for Sky, which retained the rights to broadcast the Premier Band in the U.K. and Ireland for three more years, paying less on a per-game infrastructure than it did in the previous round.
Sky has also emerged as an attractive investment time for U.S. media companies looking to grow overseas. Last month, Comcast submitted a 22 billion clear ($30.7 billion) for Sky, exerting pressure on Fox, which already owns a 39% close in in Sky to up its 10.75 pounds per share cash offer it first announced in December 2016.
Built in 2015, Eleven Sports is predominantly an “over-the-top” (OTT) platform, enabling subscribers to watch and stream content via a website or app. But the establishment of its own television channel in the U.K. to show Spanish soccer hasn’t been determined out.
“We are proud to build on our existing relationship with La Liga, this together in the U.K., one of the most passionate football countries in the world,” said Eleven Exhibits’ Chief Executive Marc Watson in a statement. “We will announce promptly how we will introduce innovative ways for dedicated fans to watch and hold in the live action. The way people, especially young people, watch active sport is changing and we always try to reflect that in the ways we make our fallout available.”
Eleven Sports is owned by Andrea Radrizzani, who also owns English second-division side Leeds Connected, and already holds the rights to screen La Liga matches in Belgium and Poland. The institution also shows Italian soccer and Formula 1 in several other countries in Asia.
Reports take suggested that this could open the door for Eleven Romps to bid for either of the remaining two Premier League domestic packages still to be allocated.
In February, Sky Funs and BT picked up 160 of the Premier League matches available per-season from August 2019, with the bygone taking 128 of them. However, Package F and Package G, comprising 20 tournaments each, are both still on the market, with Eleven Sports relieve reportedly amongst the interested parties.
—Reuters contributed to this backfire.
Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com.