Spanish media heavyweight Telefonica has extended its sublicensing agreement with global sports subscription platform DAZN, in a deal that will see the Movistar Plus service air all games from the country's top-tier LaLiga soccer competition for the next five seasons.
A non-exclusive deal has been submitted for approval to Spain's National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), with Telefonica agreeing to pay DAZN €1.65 billion ($1.9 billion) to distribute the platform's LaLiga rights package through 2031-32.
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The tie-up covers five of the 10 LaLiga matches each gameweek, for all 38 matchdays per season, on pay-TV.
Telefonica will pay an average of €330 million per season to DAZN for the rights package, an increase on the €280 million per year it is paying under the pair's current agreement, running through until the end of 2026-27.
The deal means customers of Telefónica's Movistar Plus TV service will continue to have all LaLiga action available to them for the 2027-28 to 2031-32 cycle. This is because Telefónica and Movistar hold rights to the other five fixtures per gameweek as part of a separate deal.
Both the packages of domestic rights for the next cycle were awarded late last year, with total fees from both broadcasters, for residential broadcast rights covering the five seasons in question, coming to €5.25 billion (an uplift on the current fees).
Both broadcasters will receive rights to one each of the two annual El Clásico meetings between heavyweights – and fierce rivals – Madrid and Barcelona, and an equal number of first-choice picks through the season.
However, one change from the current deal will be that, while the five-games-each format will be maintained, Movistar’s three-matchday exclusive broadcast window will be eliminated, hence why DAZN has increased its financial commitment.
Separate deals are in place for TV rights to LaLiga in commercial premises.
This tie-up has been announced with around a month gone in the 2026-26 LaLiga season – over the past few weeks, a range of overseas tie-ups have been completed for this current campaign. This includes another deal with DAZN covering Sub-Saharan Africa.
In terms of Telefonica's other premier soccer rights in Spain, the media giant also holds exclusive UEFA pan-European club competition rights for the 2027-31 cycle, through a deal also dating back to last November.
DAZN, meanwhile, renewed its rights deal in Spain covering motor racing's elite Formula 1 earlier in September, with the extension covering the next four seasons of that iconic property.
