Doha: beIN Media Group (‘beIN’), has signed a deal extending its La Liga broadcast rights, which will see the Group’s flagship sports channel, beIN Sports, remain the home of Spanish football in 34 markets across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) until the end of the 2027-28 season and 2026-27 season respectively.
beIN has held the rights to La Liga since 2003 in MENA and 2015 in APAC. The new campaign will see Spain’s top league continue to be broadcast exclusively on beIN Sports for 16 consecutive seasons across 23 MENA markets. The network will continue to have rights to all 380 league games and will see its media rights agreement expanded to bring La Liga back to beIN in Australia and New Zealand.
Group CEO of beIN Media Group Yousef Al Obaidly said: “We are delighted to extend our contract with La Liga with two significant multi-year deals across 34 countries. As long-term, committed partners of La Liga, we are proud to help Spanish football grow worldwide through our world-class broadcasting and our significant and dependable investment. This major deal is further testament to beIN’s considered and consistent strategy to deliver growth as one of the leading sports, entertainment and media groups in the world.”
La Liga President Javier Tebas, stated: “At La Liga we always look for best-in-class partners to deliver Spanish football to fans everywhere. Our relationship with beIN has been essential for us in order to ensure people in MENA and APAC regions to be able to enjoy a unique competition as La Liga to the fullest. We are sure that the next seasons are going to be unparalleled ones for our fans across the region.”
Starting on August 15 and expected to feature a full round of 10 matches, some of the key stories ahead of the new season will be how quickly Real Madrid’s superstar new signing Kylian Mbappe can settle, whether FC Barcelona’s new German coach Hansi Flick can quickly influence his new club’s style of play, and if Girona can push on now after qualifying for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in the club’s 93-year history.
The exclusive deal covers the following countries across MENA and APAC: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, Yemen, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Australia, and New Zealand. beIN will also co-share LALIGA broadcast rights in Iraq with the regional platform 1001.
An agreement beyond broadcasting which tackles audiovisual fraud
Audiovisual fraud is a scourge for the development of the audiovisual industry and the sports ecosystem, with a highly damaging impact on clubs, organisations, and broadcasters.
Thus, La Liga and beIN have jointly undertaken initiatives to combat audiovisual fraud, such as legal actions in Morocco and Bahrain aimed at blocking illegal streaming websites in the former and dismantling an illegal IPTV service in the latter. As well, periodic administrative blockades have been taken jointly with other right holders in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Similarly, there is constant communication between both entities to report all cases in the HORECA channel (hotels, restaurants and cafeterias) in Spain where decoders with contracts from other countries are identified, to proceed with their deactivation.
