While in France, the affair went up to the Elysee Palace, it made little noise in Spain, where the group led by Jaume Roures holds part of the television rights to the Spanish championship, those allowing it to broadcast the meetings in bars and outside Spain.
"I have confidence in
Mediapro
", assured Javier Tebas, president of La Liga at the end of January.
The Spanish league and
Mediapro
, however, had to renegotiate the terms of their contract downwards as thousands of bars have closed in Spain due to the pandemic.
“We had no problem between LaLiga and
Mediapro
, because we renegotiated what had to be renegotiated.
No one said that this contract should be stopped because the bars are closed.
What you need to know is that when you have a crisis like this, certain things must be renegotiated, ”Mr. Tebas stressed without revealing any figures.
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A situation that contrasts with the psychodrama triggered in France by the rupture between the LFP and Mediapro, unable to honor in the fall the payments provided in exchange for the right to broadcast matches on the
Telefoot
channel
, acquired in 2018 for more than 800 millions of euros.
For Francesc Rufas, specialist in sports marketing, Spanish football has every interest in not reproducing the French scandal so as not to put itself in danger.
“They have nothing to gain from giving the impression that certain clubs, or La Liga, could have problems collecting the money” for television rights, he explains.
The Spanish league has therefore chosen, according to him, to avoid the clash, in a very difficult context for European football, where the matches behind closed doors lose their interest for an audience which cannot go neither to the stadium nor to the bars. due to the pandemic.
“La Liga would rather win less, but win anyway,” said Rufas.
“If there had been a downward renegotiation (in France), Mediapro would have paid.
Less, but they would have paid, ”he thinks.
Damaged credibility
The economic weight of
Mediapro
is however less important in Spain since the domestic broadcasting rights for the Spanish championship (excluding bars) are no longer held by this group but by the telecommunications group
Telefonica
, which seized it in 2018 via its subsidiary.
Movistar
.
No risk therefore for the Spaniards to be deprived of the broadcasts of matches at home, even if a failure of
Mediapro
would have a financial impact for La Liga.
Mediapro's
influence
"is not what it used to be, now
Movistar
has the lion's share in terms of sports rights", explains Joan Celma, specialist in sports business management.
But "its credibility is affected", believes Mr. Celma, especially since it occurs after the loss of the rights of the Italian Serie A in 2018, for lack of having provided sufficient bank guarantees.
Mediapro
nevertheless applied again in this country.
Upcoming legal disputes?
The group's cash flow, which is around 90 million euros, remains "low", estimated at the end of January Moody's.
The financial rating agency also stressed that it could suffer from the "costs of dismantling operations in France" and possible legal disputes with French telecom operators such as
Free
or
SFR
who were counting on the distribution of
Telefoot
.
The future of the group is largely in the hands of its Chinese majority shareholder, the Orient Hontai Capital fund, which launched the “aggressive” strategy of acquiring rights “without providing it with sufficient liquidity”, recalls Francesc Rufa.
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Mediapro
, which says it derives about a third of its income from TV rights, continued its film and series production activity despite the French turmoil, producing for example in 2020 the last Woody Allen, as well as El Buen Patron, shot at the autumn with Javier Bardem by Fernando Leon de Aranoa.
The Spanish director assured
AFP that he
had a "stable and trusting relationship for twenty years with Mediapro, which is not usual in this environment".
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TV rights: an offer in the amount of ... 156 euros submitted for Ligue 1
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