RTVE pulls plug on La Liga highlights


Details

Juan Fernandez Gonzalez

| 27 February 2016




Spain's public broadcaster RTVE has decided to stop airing La Liga's match recaps by way of protest against a watchdog ruling.



Despite buying one of La Liga's broadcasting blocks for 2015-2016, which included 90-second recaps of each game, the country's Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) ruled later that every media company should have access to them, as they were of public interest.

The CNMC stated La Liga couldn't be so protective about the rights of football match highlights, which had been already sold to the public broadcaster in August. Since then, other free-to-air networks, in particular the Mediaset group, were pressing the competition authority to rule against the operation.

From next week, RTVE is cancelling a programming block made of the recaps, formally ending the contract with La Liga.

The decision was made during RTVE's monthly board meeting, in which the broadcaster's annual results were also officially presented.