Meo pulls Porto Canal from Nos as football battle deepens

FC Porto’s Estádio do Dragão

Portuguese service provider Meo – the brand used by Altice-owned Portugal Telecom – has pulled Porto Canal, the TV channel of football club FC Porto, from the TV service of rival pay TV operator Nos after the pair failed to strike an acceptable deal.

The pair are engaged in a battle over football rights. Meo secured the rights to FC Porto matches in a deal that also gave it distribution rights to Porto Canal earlier this year. Nos meanwhile secured the rights to rival clubs Benfica and Sporting – in the case of the former from this season and for the latter from 2017-18 – along with the distribution rights to both teams’ TV channels

Nos accused Meo of failing to present a realistic proposal for the carriage of Porto Canal and said that the failure to strike a deal validated its strategy of seeking to own sports rights.

Meo meanwhile accused Nos of failing to respond to its proposal.

The Portuguese football championship itself is currently broadcast on the Sport TV channel owned by Nos and Portuguese businessman Joaquin Oliveira, with the exception of Benfica home matches, which are exclusive the Benfica TV channel until the end of the current season. Both FC Porto and Sporting’s matches are set to remain on Sport TV  via contracts with Oliveira’s PPTV for the next two seasons.