Mediapro says no deal in sight with Telefónica

Catalan broadcaster Mediapro has said there is no deal in sight with Telefónica for carriage of its BeIN Sports channel, which holds the rights to Champions League and Europa League football in Spain, on the Movistar TV platform.

Mediapro said that there had been no developments in talks with Telefónica for the past four weeks, and that Telefónica had not responded to its offer, which did not correspond to figures that have been published by the Spanish media.

The broadcaster’s statement came as Telefónica’s chief executive for Catalonia, Kim Faura, said that the telco expected to strike a deal as soon as possible, but that Mediapro had demanded an unacceptable sum for the channel. Reports had earlier suggested that Mediapro wanted about €200 million for BeIN Sports from Telefónica.

BeIN Sports has deals in place with Vodafone, Orange and Telecable for retransmission of the channel. BeIN Sport reportedly has about 1.2 million subscribers. However, Telefónica’s Movistar TV is the leading pay TV platform in the country, with about four million subscribers.