The BeIN Sports pay-TV broadcast heavyweight has extended its exclusive rights deals covering Spanish soccer’s top-tier LaLiga across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Asia-Pacific (APAC).
Through a deal unveiled earlier today, partnership renewals have been struck through 2026-27 (APAC) and 2027-28 (MENA), with 34 markets covered in total – 23 in MENA and 11 in APAC.
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BeIN has held rights to Spanish soccer’s top division since 2003 (under its previous guise as ART) in MENA and for the last nine years in a selection of APAC countries. The most recent tie-up in MENA was unveiled in mid-2019.
In addition, it is also set to cover the 20-team league in France, through a deal announced in June.
Regarding the APAC agreement, BeIN has also returned as a LaLiga rightsholder in Australia and New Zealand (where the league was not shown at all last season).
All 380 games from each of the LaLiga seasons covered in the deal will be shown live, with this agreement very much unveiled at the eleventh hour – the 2024-25 LaLiga campaign gets underway tomorrow (August 15).
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By GlobalDataDespite the length of the BeIN-LaLiga partnership in multiple markets, relations between the pair have been frosty in recent years. In October 2022, BeIN launched legal proceedings against the league’s president Javier Tebas, citing a breach of professional ethics after the Spaniard had made inflammatory remarks about the broadcaster.
This public feud put the international rights for LaLiga that BeIN held at the time in jeopardy.
Other top-tier soccer competitions shown by BeIN across MENA include England’s Premier League, France’s Ligue 1, and Germany’s Bundesliga. Across other sports, NBA basketball and F1 motor racing are also covered.
In APAC, meanwhile, properties shown include F1, tennis’ Australian Open and Roland-Garros events, and soccer’s pan-European UEFA Champions League.
For LaLiga, media rights deals were unveiled earlier this year in sub-Saharan Africa, with both StarTimes and AzamTV, and with DAZN in Italy and Portugal.
Tebas said: “At LaLiga we always look for best-in-class partners to deliver Spanish football to fans everywhere. Our relationship with BeIN has been essential for us in order to ensure people in the MENA and APAC regions enjoy a unique competition.”
North Africa, and Morocco in particular, was a source of numerous LaLiga players last season, such as Youssef En-Nesyri (Sevilla), Brahim Diaz (Real Madrid), and Munir El Haddadi (Las Palmas).
The 2024-25 LaLiga season begins with two fixtures – Athletic Bilbao vs Getafe, and Real Betis vs Girona.
