Telefónica to take on rival ISPs in sport-for-bars market

Telefónica has acquired rights to take top-tier Spanish and international football to hotels, restaurants and bars for the forthcoming season

The telco secured the rights after striking a sub-licensing deal with Mediapro, which retained so-called Horeca rights when it sold its own rights to top-tier Spanish football to Telefónica.

The move means that subscribing premises will be able to air matches from the forthcoming first and second league La Liga seasons, including six play-off matches, all matches from the Champions League and a selection of Europa League matches.

Premises that sign up now can benefit from a promotional price of €320 a month for the first six months, whether they take the signal via satellite or IPTV.

Movistar+ will also provide its #Vamos channel, which offers major matches from Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1 and Germany’s Bundesliga. The new Horeca offering will also include other Movistar+ sports such as Movistar Fórmula 1 as an option, NBA basketball, Liga Endesa Spanish basketball and WNBA American women’s basketball along with tennis, golf, rugby and cycling.

Telefónica will face competition in the market from both Orange and Vodafone, according to Spanish financial paper El Español, which reports that both service provider have renewed contracts that will enable them to compete with the telco.

According to the paper, Vodafone, which has declined to strike a deal with Telefónica to sublicense rights to residential distribution of La Liga, has calculated that sublicensing Horeca rights on a non-exclusive basis can be profitable.

Rights are distributed on a non-exclusive basis following a ruling by regulator the CNMC in 2015.