Telefónica will seek to lower the price of football rights and confirms its interest in the LaLiga auction
Telefónica is studying the purchase of the exploitation rights of the Santander League National Championship that LaLiga has put into competition this Wednesday, for a period of up to five seasons, from the next 2022/2023 to the one corresponding to 2026/2027.
Operators and platforms prepare for a new battle for football with the aim of lowering the cost
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This has been confirmed by the CEO of the operator, Ángel Vilá, in the conference he has held with analysts to break down the results of the first nine months of the year.
The number two of the Spanish operator has acknowledged that the company is already analyzing the conditions published by LaLiga and that it will continue in the coming weeks, because the bid for the rights of the football competition will be open until December 13, which is when the deadline for submitting offers ends.
Regarding the model of batches of matches, Vilá has indicated that it is in line with the intentions that LaLiga had already expressed, with options to package the offer of matches, since it will allow bidding for the 10 matches each day, for five or only for certain weekends, for example. An option to bid on certain matches that can open the door to new operators and platforms, such as Dazn or Amazon, which have not moved a tab so far.
In fact, Vilá has recalled that the 'teleco' already has agreements with these platforms, for example, with Dazn to broadcast the MotoGP championship on Movistar +.
"We are interested", Vilá has confirmed for being an asset, a content, that differentiates Telefónica from other operators and thus improves its revenue volume in Spain and has left the door open to analyze all packages.
Will look for price deflation
In this way, the company chaired by José María Álvarez-Pallete is emerging as the main interested party, since Vodafone has already withdrawn from the previous auction and Orange has already advanced that it will not bid and that, in the future, it will negotiate with whoever is do with the rights.
As a nuance, the CEO of Telefónica has emphasized that the cost of the purchase of these rights must be adequate and that he will seek a price reduction compared to previous bids, as a way, in addition to reducing the company's costs. "We will analyze it in detail, the different batches and their reasonableness," he repeated.
In the previous bid, Telefónica was awarded the LaLiga emission rights in the residential market, for the 2019/2022 cycle, for 980 million euros for each of the three seasons in question. Then, that price, meant a reduction of 5% compared to the previous contract.
Revenue rebound in Spain
Regarding the results themselves, Telefónica has closed the first nine months of the year with a profit of 9,335 million, of which 706 million correspond to the third quarter, due to the extraordinary of the sale of Telxius towers and the formation of the 'joint venture' with Liberty in the United Kingdom. Regarding revenues, they advanced 1.7%, to 29,603 million euros until September 30.
In Spain, where it has assumed the impact of the evolution of energy prices, revenues increased for the second consecutive quarter, specifically, 0.4%, to 3,114 million euros. However, the operator points out, in the information that it has sent to the CNMV, a drop in accesses, for example, of 6.2% in pay television and 1.4% in mobile phones, while in convergent clients the step year-on-year back is 3%.
