Spanish public TV, Mediapro win UCL rights
Spanish public television, a network of local television channels and the media group Mediapro have won the rights to broadcast the European Champions League from 2009 to 2012, UEFA announced on Friday.
"Spain's public broadcaster TVE has secured a major package of rights which includes the exclusive broadcast of the Tuesday first choice live match each matchweek on TVE1," the Union of European Football Associations said.
"The Federation of Regional Radio and Television Stations has obtained the exclusive free-to-air rights to the first choice Wednesday live match," it said.
"Mediapro has emerged as the winner of the pay TV rights which include exclusive coverage of the remaining live matches. As a result, the match will be shown every Wednesday on the primary channel of each regional broadcaster which is part of the FORTA network."
The decisions mark a change from last season, when the Antena 3 and Canal + channels shared the first choice matches while the others were broadcast by the Digital + pay television, part of Sogecable, a subsidiary of media giant Prisa.
Mediapro and Sogecable are in the midst of a cutthroat battle over the rights to broadcast football matches.
Mediapro, which owns the terrestrial channel La Sexta, negotiated with the clubs to hold the rights from 2009, to the annoyance of Sogecable which has previously been the leader in broadcasting football in Spain.
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