Mediapro, the media rights and production agency, is contesting LaLiga’s decision to award its next broadcast production contract to Host Broadcast Services (HBS), claiming the top Spanish soccer league’s tender process was “marked by a lack of transparency.”
LaLiga announced yesterday (April 14) that it had selected HBS and Telefonica Services Audiovisuales (TSA) as production partners for its top two divisions for the next five seasons.
The league unveiled that following a selection process that began last September, its management control body for audiovisual rights ratified the new appointments. They will be in position from the start of the 2025-26 season to the end of the 2029-30 campaign – taking over from incumbent Mediapro.
However, Mediapro, which has had a longstanding relationship with LaLiga, has vowed to challenge the league’s decision, believing the tender process was not conducted fairly.
In a statement, the company said: “Grup Mediapro’s economic and technical proposal for the tender organized by LaLiga was the most competitive among all submissions. Financially, it represented the lowest cost for both LaLiga and its clubs, while technically, it significantly exceeded the requirements outlined in the tender.
“It is unprecedented that LaLiga has instead awarded the contract to a more expensive bidder — a Swiss based supplier [HBS] with no technical infrastructure in Spain and no prior experience in producing a full-season football competition of this scale.
“Furthermore, the entire tender process has been marked by a lack of transparency, with shifting deadlines and repeated delays, none of which were explained to Grup Mediapro.”
The statement continued: “LaLiga’s decision is neither fair nor objective and we believe that it may jeopardize the production of the matches at the start of the season. It will undoubtedly harm the clubs and the competition both economically and in broadcast quality.
“Grup Mediapro considers the awarding of the production contracts for LaLiga to be arbitrary and lacking in objective justification. The company is committed to defending its reputation — and that of its professionals — and will contest the outcome of the tender process through all available channels, both nationally and internationally.”
Out of a total of five lots available, HBS (which alongside Italian broadcast production firm NVP will form a joint venture with LaLiga) has been selected as the production company for LaLiga and the second-tier Segunda Division, (lots 1 and 2), as well as MCR and centralized services (lot 3).
Meanwhile, TSA secured rights to lot 4 – contribution and distribution – “given its key technical expertise in the international communications sector.”
The entire selection process involved Abacanto, an audiovisual technology consultancy, which evaluated the applications on a technical basis.
The Spanish league said the evaluation involved analysis of “technical, operational, and economic aspects,” with the companies selected having achieved the highest scores across all criteria added together.
However, Mediapro has questioned the credentials of the companies awarded the contracts by LaLiga.
The Spanish firm added: “In its official statement, LaLiga exaggerates the merits of the successful bidders, even going as far as to disseminate demonstrably false information regarding their credentials and erroneously attributes to them the production of the UEFA Champions League, the European Championship, and the Africa Cup — events that have, in fact, been produced mostly by Grup Mediapro.
“Nor do the successful bidders have technical equipment nor human resources in Spain, nor a production hub, as stipulated as a requirement in the rules of the tender issued by LaLiga.
“In fact, the company awarded the contract does not possess these resources anywhere in the world, since they operate as consultants and executive producers, and as such, outsource the necessary technical means, often those of Grup Mediapro, which in the end was in charge of television production.”
Mediapro still holds international distribution rights for the league through 2028-29, although this deal excludes North America, the Middle East, and North Africa.
