Spain’s La Liga Launches Pioneering OTT Service to Promote Spanish Sports Federations

By Jamie Lang

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Spain’s top Soccer league, La Liga, has unveiled a new OTT service, LaLigaSportsTV. The service provides audiences with free coverage of major and minor Spanish sports content streamed directly to their personal devices. It looks set to be the first such service offered by a major European league, and of singular scope and objectives.

LaLigaSportsTV is designed and maintained by , but with the intention of promoting all Spanish sports, and specifically to promote and develop distribution of audiovisual content for lower-profile federations which typically go uncovered by mainstream media.

The new service is offered up under the LaLigaSports project, an initiative created to offer Spanish sports federations an opportunity for greater promotion and exposure. Through the project, La Liga will also offer assistance in understanding viewer habits and developing commercialization strategies.

Pending local rights restrictions, fans in and outside of Spain will now have access to the events after the real-time broadcasts have ended. The content will be made available through a simple interface which supports both live and pre-recorded content.

Excluding LaLiga 1|2|3 match streaming content, the service will be free to use on iOS and Android devices, Samsung Smart TV and screen mirroring such as Chromecast, Apple TV and Samsung.

The service will include content relating to a wide range of sports including: American football, LEB Oro basketball, boxing, hockey, racing sports, soccer and many more.

At the service’s launch on March 25, La Liga president Javier Tebas said: “The aim is to offer less high-profile sports greater and improved visibility via a platform where content is quickly and easily accessible, allowing fans to enjoy their favorite sport wherever, whenever and however they want.”

“LaLigaSportsTV is a platform that will bring about a digital transformation and will offer exposure to the work carried out by each of the Spanish sporting federations,” added Jose Hidalgo, president of the Spanish Sports Association (ADESP).

Celestino Garcia, corporate vice-president of Samsung Electronics Iberia summed up: “Samsung… always seeks to link up with the best partners. Technology and content are increasingly related and that’s why we were keen to be a part of the LaLigaSports project.”

He added: “It will allow our clients to access the very best in sporting content via their television sets, smartphones and tablets. We’re delighted to continue to offer innovative solutions to a partner of LaLiga’s standing.”