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LaLiga is on the verge of renewing its U.S. media rights deal with beIN Sports that would keep the Spanish league on the broadcaster’s English and Spanish channels through the 2024 season, according to industry sources.
LaLiga is currently in the last year of its existing deal with beIN, a partnership that dates back to 2012 and that was renewed in 2015.
While the Spanish league boasts arguably the two most popular soccer clubs in the world in Barcelona and Real Madrid, LaLiga has fallen well behind the English Premier League in terms of relevance in the U.S. – largely due to the ubiquity of the Premier League’s broadcasts on NBC Sports and the relative obscurity of beIN Sports to the average U.S. sports consumer.
With Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A both moving to ESPN+ for their next deals – with some exposure on ESPN’s linear channels – many expected LaLiga to follow. However, beIN’s broader partnership with the league outside of the U.S., where it holds the rights to multiple other markets, helped keep the league on the network, according to sources.
What remains to be seen is how LaLiga will look to broaden itself beyond this particular deal. LaLiga signed a 15-year partnership with Relevent Sports last August to improve its reach in the U.S., a deal that is focused largely on increasing the amount of LaLiga content that is available to U.S.-based fans.
It is expected that this deal will allow for league content appear on other broadcast platforms beyond beIN, which will also likely include matches being sublicensed on another network on a weekly basis, said sources.
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Representatives for LaLiga declined a request for comment. News of the renewal was first reported by World Soccer Talk.
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