Spanish soccer giants Barcelona have announced that the club will broadcast every home fixture of its women’s team, Barcelona Femení, via their own channels, appearing to settle a dispute with Mediapro by permitting away games to be broadcast on Mediapro’s Gol channel.
In a statement on the club’s website, Barcelona said: ‘[The club] will broadcast through its own channels all the matches of the Primera Iberdrola that will be played this season at the Johan Cruyff Stadium.’
Adding: 'Distributed free of charge, by all means requesting it, collections of images of each of these parties, up to two minutes, so that everyone can exercise the right to information of the general public.
'[The club] will never oppose the broadcasting by clubs of the games that are played in their facilities, through the channels they consider more suitable.’
Barcelona’s announcement comes less than a month they breached Mediapro’s media rights contract with the majority of the league’s clubs.
In contradiction of the deal between the Spanish media agency and the Association of Women's Soccer Clubs (ACFF), the 12-member Spanish women’s club soccer body, Barcelona chose to air their fixture with Atletico Madrid via their own digital platform. Mediapro’s rights deal with the ACFF outlaws this without permission from the agency or the member club, which Barcelona did not gain.
Prior to the fixture, a Barcelona district court issued a precautionary suspension preventing Barcelona from broadcasting Atleti’s visit but last season’s beaten Uefa Women’s Champions League finalists decided to defy the ban by airing the game on their in-house BarcaTV network.
As one of four clubs outside of the ACFF’s three-year, €3 million (US$3.3 million) deal with Mediapro, Barcelona claim that women’s soccer requires more exposure in order to ‘develop female sport correctly’. They are leaning on the so-called ‘arena right’, which they argue gives the club assurances to broadcast or relay matches played within their facilities, including Uefa Women's Champions League games.
The club said: ‘In the last years, the RFEF [Spanish soccer’s governing body] and the main sponsor of the competition have made great efforts, advances and investments that have allowed to improve the conditions of this sport practice. All of these are giving results and deserve our full recognition and support.
‘But it is obvious that these improvements cannot change the reality of female football from one day to the next and have not yet allowed to compare the situation of the 16 clubs that play the First Iberdrola.’
As one of four clubs outside of the ACFF’s deal with Mediapro, Barcelona are in the middle of a dispute between the clubs body and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) regarding control of domestic women’s soccer broadcast rights.
The collective agreement struck back in March by the ACFF with Mediapro was ratified in a Madrid court earlier this summer after both parties sought to clarify their legal position following the RFEF’s reorganisation at the top of the Spanish women’s game. The commercial court of Madrid ruled during the summer that the RFEF could not force ACFF members to cede their TV rights signed with Mediapro in order to join the Primera Iberdrola.
In September, European soccer’s governing body Uefa gave the RFEF €1.5 million (US$1.7 million) to invest in its broadcasts for select teams in the domestic top-flight women’s soccer league, having previously confirmed that Primera Iberdrola matches would be streamed overseas via its own over-the-top (OTT) service.
Spanish soccer giants Barcelona have announced that the club will broadcast every home fixture of its women’s team, Barcelona Femení, via their own channels, appearing to settle a dispute with Mediapro by permitting away games to be broadcast on Mediapro’s Gol channel.
In a statement on the club’s website, Barcelona said: ‘[The club] will broadcast through its own channels all the matches of the Primera Iberdrola that will be played this season at the Johan Cruyff Stadium.’
Adding: 'Distributed free of charge, by all means requesting it, collections of images of each of these parties, up to two minutes, so that everyone can exercise the right to information of the general public.
'[The club] will never oppose the broadcasting by clubs of the games that are played in their facilities, through the channels they consider more suitable.’
Barcelona’s announcement comes less than a month they breached Mediapro’s media rights contract with the majority of the league’s clubs.
In contradiction of the deal between the Spanish media agency and the Association of Women's Soccer Clubs (ACFF), the 12-member Spanish women’s club soccer body, Barcelona chose to air their fixture with Atletico Madrid via their own digital platform. Mediapro’s rights deal with the ACFF outlaws this without permission from the agency or the member club, which Barcelona did not gain.
Prior to the fixture, a Barcelona district court issued a precautionary suspension preventing Barcelona from broadcasting Atleti’s visit but last season’s beaten Uefa Women’s Champions League finalists decided to defy the ban by airing the game on their in-house BarcaTV network.
As one of four clubs outside of the ACFF’s three-year, €3 million (US$3.3 million) deal with Mediapro, Barcelona claim that women’s soccer requires more exposure in order to ‘develop female sport correctly’. They are leaning on the so-called ‘arena right’, which they argue gives the club assurances to broadcast or relay matches played within their facilities, including Uefa Women's Champions League games.
The club said: ‘In the last years, the RFEF [Spanish soccer’s governing body] and the main sponsor of the competition have made great efforts, advances and investments that have allowed to improve the conditions of this sport practice. All of these are giving results and deserve our full recognition and support.
‘But it is obvious that these improvements cannot change the reality of female football from one day to the next and have not yet allowed to compare the situation of the 16 clubs that play the First Iberdrola.’
As one of four clubs outside of the ACFF’s deal with Mediapro, Barcelona are in the middle of a dispute between the clubs body and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) regarding control of domestic women’s soccer broadcast rights.
The collective agreement struck back in March by the ACFF with Mediapro was ratified in a Madrid court earlier this summer after both parties sought to clarify their legal position following the RFEF’s reorganisation at the top of the Spanish women’s game. The commercial court of Madrid ruled during the summer that the RFEF could not force ACFF members to cede their TV rights signed with Mediapro in order to join the Primera Iberdrola.
In September, European soccer’s governing body Uefa gave the RFEF €1.5 million (US$1.7 million) to invest in its broadcasts for select teams in the domestic top-flight women’s soccer league, having previously confirmed that Primera Iberdrola matches would be streamed overseas via its own over-the-top (OTT) service.
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