By Gareth Messenger
September 23 – Spanish club Athletic Bilbao have reached an agreement with multimedia communications group, MediaPro, regarding a long-running dispute over television rights. The Basque La Liga side said an agreement had been reached which will see Mediapro pay the “full amount” of the money owed. The rights agency must now pay €11.5 million to Athletic Bilbao.
MediaPro had claimed that the club had breached several clauses in the contract between them and Bilbao, but the club strongly denied the allegations.
Mediapro’s contract with Bilbao expired on June 30, 2012 and the club signed a new three-season agreement with pay television broadcaster Prisa TV last year worth €30 million per year for the period until the 2014-2015 campaign.
MediaPro was founded in 1994 in Barcelona and is involved in television production and film production, working closely with Publico and Gol Television. Based in Catalonia, the company has branch offices in Amsterdam, Lisbon, Miami, Porto, Qatar as well as a number of different Spanish cities.
In July, MediaPro President Jaume Roures (pictured), whose company is the leading rights holder for La Liga matches, said he wanted to see more matches played between mid-day and 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays as he said it would prove to be commercially beneficial to clubs.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734845623labto1734845623ofdlr1734845623owedi1734845623ni@re1734845623gness1734845623em.ht1734845623erag1734845623. Gareth Messenger is Editor-in-Chief of www.laliganews.tv.