The Management Control Body for Audiovisual Rights at LaLiga has anounced the companies that will manage the audiovisual production of LaLiga EA Sports, LaLiga Hypermotion, and related competition content for the next five seasons.

Following the decision of the executives of the different areas that have participated in the selection process, it has been made official that the Grup Mediapro will no longer be in charge of the production. New content providers include a Host Broadcast Services (HBS) and Telefonica Audiovisual Services (TSA).

In the evaluation of possible candidates, which began in September 2024 and in which the Abacanto company has participated, five blocks were defined to tackle the technical, operational and economic aspects. These were divided into:

• Lot 1: Operating media LaLiga EA Sports
• Lot 2: Operating media LaLiga Hypermotion
• Lot 3: MCR and Centralised Services
• Lot 4: Contribution and Distribution
• Lot 5: Content Generation

According to LaLiga, the decision was based on a comparative analysis of all the proposals submitted, and it decided to award the available blocks to the companies that achieved the highest scores in both technical and financial evaluations, in line with the criteria outlined in the tender specifications

HBS has been selected for Lots 1, 2 and 3, while TSA will be responsible for Lot 4, focused on contribution and distribution. Lot 5 has not been awarded after evaluating the offers received. The generation of content will therefore be integrated with other content projects that LaLiga must contract, which were not included in this particular tender.

Mediapro reacted after this decision

In view of LaLiga’s announcement, Grup Mediapro issued a strong statement where defined as “surprising” the decision to exclude the company from all the awards of the production and distribution contracts of the Spanish national football championship.

“Grup Mediapro’s economic and technical proposal for the tender organized by LaLiga was the most competitive among all submissions. Financially, it represented the lowest cost for both LaLiga and its clubs, while technically, it significantly exceed-ed the requirements outlined in the tender”, protested.

“It is unprecedented that LALIGA has in-stead awarded the contract to a more expensive bidder — a Swiss based supplier with no technical infrastructure in Spain and no prior experience in producing a full-season football competition of this scale”.

“The entire tender process has been marked by a lack of transparency, with shifting deadlines and repeated delays, none of which were explained to Grup Mediapro”, added in the aforementioned statement.

Aditionally, Mediapro complained that “in its official statement, LaLiga exaggerates the merits of the successful bidders, even going as far as to disseminate demonstrably false information regarding their creden-tials and erroneously attributes to them the production of the UEFA Champions League, the European Championship, and the Africa Cup — events that have, in fact, been produced mostly by Grup Mediapro”. “Nor do the successful bidders have technical equipment nor human resources in Spain, nor a production HUB, as stipulated as a requirement in the rules of the tender issued by LALIGA. In fact, the company awarded the contract does not possess these resources anywhere in the world, since they operate as consultants and executive producers, and as such, outsource the necessary technical means, often those of Grup Mediapro, which in the end was in charge of television production”.

Finally, the company mentioned that it plans to challenge the result: “Grup Mediapro believes the unfounded change of audiovisual operator, which, if car-ried out with such urgency, could jeopardize the production of early-season matches. This change will undoubtedly harm the clubs and the competition both financially and in terms of broadcast quality. Grup Mediapro will defend its reputation, and that of all its professionals, and will re-view any potential appeal of the decision”.