Spain

[ES] CNMC decides on short news reports for football matches

IRIS 2016-3:1/12

Sonia Monjas-González

CNMC

On 28 January 2016, Spain’s National Authority for Markets and Competition (CNMC) adopted a decision ordering the Professional Football League (LFP) to give a 90-seconds short news summary of every game to every television station and allow free access to stadiums to broadcasters. However, the channels could only show the summary twice in a 24 hour period.

In its decision, the CNMC stressed "the unquestionable social relevance of professional sports" in Spain. However the regulator also considered that 90 seconds is enough to guarantee the citizens’ rights to be informed, and therefore no economic exchange is foreseen for their broadcasting.

The decision followed a complaint issued in September 2015 by Mediaset Spain, a subsidiary of the Italian businessman Silvio Berlusconi, against the LPF over restrictions of access to the top football matches. The CNMC issued interim measures ensuring Mediaset access to stadiums.

The LPF, which sold free-to-air rights to the public RTVE broadcaster, considered this should mean one-and-a-half minutes on all games in a single day. Mediaset argued that there should be coverage of each game and refused to sign the LPF accreditation terms to get access to stadiums.

The Spanish legal framework requires the television rights holder to provide a 90-seconds short news summary to others broadcasters. This service shall only be used for general news programmes.