TV Row Threatens Spanish International Coverage

The row between Sogecable and Mediapro looks set to see games from Spain blocked from being shown abroad again this weekend, despite the offer of a compromise.

Within Spain, Mediapro will show two matches on their free-to-air La Sexta channel on Saturday while talks continue to be held over a hefty lawsuit.

Sogecable and Mediapro formed Audiovisual Sport (AVS), with the Sogecable owning 80 per cent and Mediapro the remaining 20 percent, as a mean to show live football games, but the former then began to buy club-by-club rights.

That move saw Sogecable claim that an agreement had been broken and sued Mediapro for €58m as part of the AVS deal.

After Mediapro signed agreements with 12 clubs for the 2008-09 season and a total of 39 for the 2009-2010 season, that includes FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, the fuse was lit.

In recent days Sogecable have now added another €200m debt to their lawsuit, while Mediapro have countered that is is they that are owed €43m.

Sogecable also claim that they have not received payment for the rights to games this season, but Mediapro claim that they do not recognise the deal.

The row reached its peak last weekend when Sogecable were accused by Mediapro of blocking their technical teams from games which saw both the Madrid derby and Barça's game against Racing from being shown abroad.

Mediapro hold the rights to overseas distribution, but were unable to as they were not allowed into various stadiums and saw games stopped from being shown.

In return, Mediapro stopped Sogecable from showing highlights of the three games that they screened on their Canal Digital football programmes.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel as Mediapro have said that they will renegotiate the deal, but without giving up their right to air live games on La Sexta.

"We have an agreement to show live games on terrestrial television and nobody can stop us from executing our rights," Mediapro chief Tatxo Bent said.

While the problem remains unsolved, Mediapro will be unable to distribute games overseas leaving foreign viewers without their weekly fix of Spanish football.

Personally I hope that this problem will be solved as soon as possible! I can hardly wait to see my favorite team (Real Madrid) play!