Mediapro reportedly ready to distribute football to Telefónica rivals

Spain’s Mediapro is capitulating to pressure from the country’s competition watchdog and leading service providers and will agree to distribute its BeIN Sports service, which holds key rights to Spanish and European football, to all operators, according to local reports.

Leading operator Telefónica and Mediapro recently struck a €2.4 deal to secure Mediapro’s football content for Telefónica’s Movistar TV subscribers after a long delay when the telco was unable to offer a full line-up of football to its customers.

The deal immediately led to pressure from rivals on the regulator and Telefónica to ensure that the terms of the deal met commitments made by the country’s largest operator to the regulator, the CNMC, to provide key premium content to rivals as a condition for its takeover of pay TV outfit Canal+ Spain.

According to the Sabemos Digital website, citing unnamed sources, Mediapro will distribute beIN Sports, which will air the football, to rival operators including Vodafone, Orange and Telecable. However, the site notes, it remains to be seen how much rival operators will have to pay to enable Mediapro to make back its investment.