Telefonica has agreed to pay €600 million for the pay TV rights to the top and second-flight football leagues in Spain for the upcoming 2015-2016 season.
The Spanish telco has brokered a deal with La Liga to show games from Liga BBVA, Liga Adelante and the paid-for games in the Copa del Rey, it announced late last week.
In a short statement, both parties said they are happy with the deal and consider it to be "beneficial for the rest of the operators, clubs and supporters."
The announcement came days after Telefonica launched Movistar+, a new TV offering resulting from the merger of its Movistar TV service with Canal+, the pay TV company it agreed to take full control of earlier this year.
Canal+ customers and users of Movistar’s Fusión TV para Todos plan are being migrated to the new service at no additional charge, starting from Wednesday last week. Movistar+ will be gradually extended to other Movistar TV subscribers, Telefonica said. In total, Movistar+ will be made available to 3.6 million customers, it added.
"The aim of Movistar+ will be to offer the best TV content in Spain and develop the market in the country, committing itself at the same time to different access platforms such as IPTV, satellite and over the top (from the cloud), allowing TV to be watched on any devi ce," Telefonica said.
"We believe that with this offer we can reach more customers, as it is designed to suit their needs, tastes and preferences," added Luis Miguel Gilpérez, chairman of Telefonica Spain.
"And we not only have the best content, but also the most innovative features and the most advanced services," he said.
The basic Movistar+ package costs €20 per month and comes with 80 TV channels, 5,000 movies, documentaries and children’s programmes, as well as Canal+. For an extra €5 per month, customers can add Canal+ Series and Canal+ Series Xtra, which includes content like Game of Thrones, while an additional movie channel costs €9 per month. A sports package costs an additional €20 per month.
