December 17 – LaLiga is striking at the heart of English Premier League broadcast territory with the country’s first dedicated football channel on the SkyTV platform.
LaLiga announced in September that, after struggling to find a UK channel willing to pay its broadcast rights fee expectations, it had struck a multi-platform solution with Premier Sports that will see live matches on Premier Sports 1 and 2, as well as LaLigaTV as a standalone channel as part of the Premier Sports package.
Content will be dedicated solely to LaLiga with subscribers having access to all of LaLiga’s live matches.
The channel will kick off January 13 with two matchdays broadcast free to Sky’s 8.5 million households. Games will include Real Betis vs. Real Sociedad and FC Barcelona vs. Granada CF on matchday 20, and Real Valladolid vs. Real Madrid and Sevilla FC vs. Granada CF on matchday 21.
Sky subscribers will get a two-week free trial of the channel which is available for £5.99/month thereafter. Subscribers will also get access to Premier’s OTT service, Premier Player. Subscriptions will cost £11.99 per month if purchased in a bundle alongside Premier Sports 1 and Premier Sports 2 HD channels.
Premier Sports’ free-to-air channel FreeSports will also broadcast match content as well as the weekly LaLiga Highlights Show.
Javier Tebas, LaLiga’s president, has continually challenged the Premier League and its commercial power play worldwide but has now taken the fight into the English market at a time when Spanish dominance of European club football has given way to English.
Tebas said in September: “Through our long-term partnership with Premier Sports, we’re happy to give fans of Spanish football a chance to enjoy LaLiga’s world-class content in a variety of formats, including via OTT and Premier Sports’ linear TV offering, as well as our own dedicated English-language channel, LaLigaTV. We trust that football fans across both these territories will enjoy unprecedented access to the best league in the world.”
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