Today, we weep for Guillem Balague.
Sky Sports have lost the rights to show live games from La Liga, having screened extensive coverage of the Spanish league for 20 years. The rights have been secured by a channel called Eleven Sports a UK-based company, owned by Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani. The broadcaster has exclusive rights to show La Liga in the UK and Ireland, and the deal runs until the end of the 2020/21 season
Sky have been steadily cutting back their expenditure on the Spanish league in recent years, with most live games this season not even featuring a studio presenter and pundits, and reports claim they refused to offer more than £18 million for the latest La Liga rights.
As to how Eleven Sports will deliver the games to customers, it is unclear. The Times Martyn Ziegler reports today that they are open to many options, which includes sub-licensing the games to BT Sport or Sky, or indeed launch their own channel or broadcast all of the games online.
Eleven Sports considering how to deliver the rights - could have its own TV channel in the UK, sublicense to BT Sport or Sky, or do it all online.
— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) May 2, 2018
More details are available on the Eleven Sports website.
