RTVE, the Spanish public-service broadcaster, has retained rights to the Copa del Rey, the domestic knockout cup soccer competition, for the 2025-27 cycle.
The renewed two-year agreement will see the broadcaster provide live and exclusive coverage of 116 matches from the men's competition each campaign, across the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 seasons.
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RTVE has been granted exclusivity on both free-to-air and pay-TV channels after acquiring the main package of rights on offer. The deal, however, does not include the qualifying phase and the final.
The tender process for the Copa del Rey was managed on behalf of the RFEF national federation by LaLiga, with a deadline of October 22 set by the top-flight Spanish league.
LaLiga has stated that it achieved a 15% increase in value for the rights package compared to the previous cycle, meaning the deal's value could be around €20 million.
RTVE’s previous agreement covered three seasons and gave the broadcaster rights to broadcast 15 matches free-to-air each season, which included the semi-finals and the final.
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By GlobalDataThe main package of rights in the last three-year cycle, meanwhile, was held by the Telefonica-owned Movistar Plus pay-TV operator.
LaLiga went to market with the Copa del Rey tender at the start of this month, with six lots made available.
Lot 1 (awarded to RTVE) was split into four options, covering live rights, while Lots 2, 3, and 5 cover game summary rights. Lot 4 gives broadcasters live rights to the 20 games from the preliminary phase of each Copa del Rey, and Lot 6 contains rights to show 64 matches live and exclusively in public establishments. These will be sold on a non-exclusive basis.
LaLiga will now continue negotiations for the remaining packages, with the likes of Movistar Plus and DAZN expected to be in the mix to cover some games.
The Spanish league has a mandate from the RFEF to sell rights for all rounds of the Copa del Rey except the final.
Barcelona won last season's Copa del Rey, beating arch-rivals Real Madrid 3-2 in the final.
