“Neither fair nor objective”, Mediapro reacts strongly to LaLiga decision to award production contract to HBS

At the Alavés versus FC Barcelona match on 3 February, Carmen Hernandez, Mediapro UHD HDR OB technical manager

LaLiga’s decision to award the production and distribution contracts for its top two divisions to Host Broadcast Services (HBS) has not been well received by the previous incumbent, Spain’s Mediapro.

In a long and strongly worded statement, Mediapro described the decision as “neither fair nor objective”, adding that it believes that it “may jeopardise the production of the matches at the start of the season. It will undoubtedly harm the clubs and the competition both economically and in broadcast quality.”

It was announced earlier today that Host Broadcast Services (HBS) and NVP have been selected by LaLiga to deliver media production and distribution for Spain’s Primera and Segunda Division matches for five years from the start of the 2025-26 season. Mediapro has been LaLiga’s production partner for over 20 years.

The statement from Mediapro, which SVG Europe has opted to include in full and unedited, reads:

1. GRUP MEDIAPRO’s economic and technical proposal for the tender organized by LALIGA was the most competitive among all submissions. Financially, it represented the lowest cost for both LALIGA and its clubs, while technically, it significantly exceeded the requirements outlined in the tender. It is unprecedented that LALIGA has instead awarded the contract to a more expensive bidder — a Swiss-based supplier with no technical infrastructure in Spain and no prior experience in producing a full-season football competition of this scale. As such, the criteria applied in the decision-making process cannot plausibly be attributed to either technical or economic merit.

2. Furthermore, the entire tender process has been marked by a lack of transparency, with shifting deadlines and repeated delays, none of which were explained to GRUP MEDIAPRO. These circumstances give us reason to believe that the process may have been intentionally manipulated to favor other participants over GRUP MEDIAPRO.

3. In its official statement, LALIGA significantly exaggerates the merits of the successful bidders, even going as far as to disseminate demonstrably false information regarding their credentials. The statement erroneously attributes to them the production of major sporting events such as the UEFA Champions League, the European Championship, and the Africa Cup — events that have, in fact, been produced mostly by GRUP MEDIAPRO.

4. Nor do the successful bidders have technical equipment nor human resources in Spain, nor a production HUB, as stipulated as a requirement in the rules of the tender issued by LALIGA. In fact, the company awarded the contract does not possess these resources anywhere in the world, since they operate as consultants and executive producers, and as such, outsource the necessary technical means, often those of GRUP MEDIAPRO, which in the end was in charge of television production.

5. On the contrary, GRUP MEDIAPRO is the most reputable and internationally recognized football audiovisual production partner, currently producing 13 top-tier national football leagues around the world and with the capacity to produce 9,000 football matches per season and more than 25,000 live sporting events during 2024, the majority of which was performed using the company’s own resources and broadcast professionals.

6. With its 105 Outside Broadcast Units worldwide and more than 4,200 broadcast professionals in Spain alone, GRUP MEDIAPRO regularly provides production services to many world-renowned competitions such as UEFA, FIFA, COMNEMOL, CONCACAF and CAF, having produced 6 of the last 10 UEFA finals.

7. Over the years that GRUP MEDIAPRO has provided technical production services, LALIGA has earned a reputation as the most innovative and technologically advanced football competition. It is therefore paradoxical that the technical expertise, reliability, and talent of GRUP MEDIAPRO’s professionals are more widely recognized internationally than by the Spanish Liga itself. Even more striking is the irony of those who claim to champion the Spanish industry choosing to award the contract to a Swiss company, despite a Spanish company being a global leader in live football production.

8. Thanks to GRUP MEDIAPRO, LALIGA has been a pioneer in adopting innovative technologies such as remote production, AI-generated highlights, augmented reality graphics, and virtual stands and sound during the pandemic. GRUP MEDIAPRO also led the first-ever live use of cinematic cameras in broadcasts — a practice later adopted by major international competitions. Moreover, LALIGA itself recently acknowledged GRUP MEDIAPRO’s invaluable contribution to the fight against piracy, even requesting that GRUP MEDIAPRO train technicians from other platforms to implement the highly effective anti-piracy tools it developed — training which GRUP MEDIAPRO provided entirely free of charge.

9. LALIGA’s decision is neither fair nor objective and we believe that it may jeopardize the production of the matches at the start of the season. It will undoubtedly harm the clubs and the competition both economically and in broadcast quality.

10. GRUP MEDIAPRO considers the awarding of the production contracts for LALIGA to be arbitrary and lacking in objective justification. The company is committed to defending its reputation — and that of its professionals — and will contest the outcome of the tender process through all available channels, both nationally and internationally.

Update

Mediapro has issued a revised statement without some of the text included in the original statement issued by the company.

The revised statement does not include the final sentence in point 1: “As such, the criteria applied in the decision-making process cannot plausibly be attributed to either technical or economic merit.”

The revised statement also omits the final sentence in point 2: “These circumstances give us reason to believe that the process may have been intentionally manipulated to favor other participants over GRUP MEDIAPRO.”

In point 3, the revised statement does not include the word “significantly” in relation to Mediapro’s assertion that “In its official statement, LALIGA exaggerates the merits of the successful bidders…”

Additional reporting by George Bevir.