La Liga’s Media Packages Could Entice Amazon

La Liga is going with the tapas model for its media rights in the hopes of enticing bids from a wide range of broadcasters.

The top Spanish soccer league is selling off packages of one-to-two match weeks instead of offering a traditional deal that would encompass most or all of the season. The structure is modeled after a deal Amazon struck with the Premier League and could prove intriguing to the retail giant.

“A 20-game package or so would be tailor-made for Amazon,” analyst Minal Modha told Bloomberg.

La Liga’s main buyer of domestic rights, Telefonica SA, is demanding lower prices. That could present an opportunity for Amazon, which has been buying up soccer rights across Europe. 

• France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel, which runs Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, signed a $302.6 million per year deal with Amazon. In protest, Canal+ pulled out of its concurrent deal with LFP.
• In December, Amazon made inroads into Italy, with a deal to broadcast Champions League soccer in the 2021-2024 seasons and the UEFA Super Cup for a reported $96-108 million per season.
• The Premier League, which had historic losses of $1.4 billion for the 2019-2020 season, re-upped its three-year, $7 billion domestic broadcast deals with Amazon, BBC Sport, BT Sport, and Sky Sports. 

In May, La Liga agreed with ESPN on an eight-year deal worth around $1.2 billion for the U.S. rights to all 340 games the league plays each season.

Aside from Amazon, La Liga’s à la carte offer could lure other entrants to European soccer that might not be ready for a full-season package, such as Discovery.