Media giant Disney has continued its sports rights acquisition spree in Europe by securing a deal to show Spanish soccer’s Copa del Rey knockout cup competition in the Nordics.
The competition will be exclusively broadcast on the Disney+ streaming service from the round of 32 up until the final for the next five years.
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The agreement kicked off with the round of 32 in this year’s edition of the Copa last night, which featured coverage of Barcelona’s 2-0 win over Guadalajara.
The long-term deal will run through the 2029-30 season.
Several Nordic players will feature in this year's Copa del Rey, notably Norwegian striker Alexander Sorloth at Atletico Madrid, and Danish defender Andreas Christensen and young Swedish winger Roony Bardghjiat at Barcelona.
Disney+ has snapped up live rights to several major soccer properties in key markets over recent months, including a three-year deal to show a package of games from Spain’s top-flight LaLiga in the UK and Ireland.
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By GlobalDataThe OTT platform also secured rights to the pan-European UEFA Women's Champions League across the continent, and to the men's UEFA Europa League and Conference League competitions in Sweden and Denmark.
Meanwhile, Disney+ becomes the latest broadcaster to acquire Copa del Rey rights, with the RFEF Spanish soccer body, in the process of concluding international coverage agreements for the competition.
Most recently, DAZN, the global sports streaming service, and Irish pay-TV broadcaster Premier Sports acquired rights in Italy and the UK and Ireland, respectively, for multiple seasons.
International rights to the Copa del Rey are being sold by the Peak Sport Media agency, which was recently hired by LaLiga in this role.
The agreement was announced after LaLiga launched a rights tender on November 21 for rights to the tournament across several international markets, with the bidding process closing on December 4.
LaLiga has a mandate in place with the RFEF to sell the rights for all rounds of the Copa del Rey except the final. It went to market with the domestic Copa del Rey tender for the 2025-27 cycle at the start of October, which closed on October 22.
Shortly after, it was announced that Spanish public service broadcaster RTVE had picked up the main package of domestic rights to the tournament for the next cycle. It will show 116 matches from the men’s competition each campaign for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons.
Pay-TV heavyweight Movistar+, meanwhile, will also show Copa del Rey action after agreeing a sub-licensing deal with RTVE to showcase a minimum of 55 games throughout the current 2025-26 season.
Orange, the international telecoms operator, also joined the list of domestic broadcasters for the tournament shortly after.
The RFEF recently announced that broadcast rights sales for the 2025-26 season will increase by €4.4 million ($5.2 million) compared to the 2024-25 season.
When the sales process managed exclusively by the federation ends, starting from the 2027-28 season, the national body expects profits of more than €7 million.
The RFEF recently cemented the future of the Copa del Rey by announcing Seville, the capital of the country’s Andalusia region, as the host of the final until 2028.
The new contract covers hosting rights for three seasons, with the match to be played at the city’s Estadio de la Cartuja, the temporary home of LaLiga club Real Betis, while its Estadio Benito Villamarin is being renovated.
The governing body is projecting an average net income of €3.9 million from this hosting agreement.
Regarding other audiovisual rights revenues, the president of the RFEF, Rafael Louzán, stated that the federation has achieved a 70% growth in the domestic market and a 27% growth in the international market for the upcoming Spanish Super Cup, which will again be played in Saudi Arabia as a four-team mini-tournament.
The 2025-26 Copa del Rey campaign started on September 27 and will run through until the final in April 2026.
