Mediapro secures Qatar World Cup rights

Spanish broadcaster and producer Mediapro has secured the Spanish rights to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, boosting its flagging roster of domestic and international football rights in the country.

Mediapro said it would create a dedicated channel providing 24/7 coverage of the competition. In addition to live broadcasts of matches, the channel will provide news and analysis programmes, interviews, coverage of training and press conferences and airing of highlights of historical matches.

The broadcaster has also secured rights to the Women’s World Cup for this year from FIFA. The event will take place in France in June and July. The Spanish team is competing in a group alongside Germany, China and South Africa. Mediapro will also air the Under-20s World Cup due to take place in Poland this year, the under-17s event in Peru in October, the FIFA beach football World Cup in Paraguay in November and the indoor football World Cup in Lithuania in September to October.

Unlike previous World Cups, the Qatar event will take place in November and December, coinciding with national league competitions.

The award is a coup for Mediapro, following its loss of La Liga rights and the sale of Champions League rights to Telefónica. The telco secured the rights to the top two La Liga packages for the 2019-22 seasons in June last year, leaving Mediapro only with a highlights package and a package for bars and clubs.

Telefónica subsequently struck a deal with the Catalan company giving the former the bulk of the rights that Mediapro had secured to the Champions League and Europa League.

The rights to the last three World Cups have been awarded to Mediaset in Spain.

Mediapro is likely to seek agreements with Spain’s platform operators to commercialise the World Cup rights, although it could also air them free-to-view on its Gol channel and on its BeIN Connect streaming platform, which currently airs matches from the French and Italian leagues.