Sky Sports has lost the coverage of Spanish football after the rights to show La Liga in the UK and Ireland were snatched by Eleven Sports, the network founded by Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani.
Sky, which has shown La Liga for more than two decades, is reported to have had a bid of less than £18 million per year rejected by the league earlier this year.
Eleven, which currently holds the La Liga rights in Belgium and Poland, could still sell matches back to broadcasters such as Sky or BT, which had threatened to swoop for the rights in 2015.
Eleven is not currently active in the UK but it could broadcast the coverage on a TV channel of its own, or via digital services. It has secured the rights for the next three seasons.
The company has said it will announce details of its plans “in the coming weeks”, and is understood to be considering all possible options.
The announcement comes just days before Barcelona host Real Madrid in ‘El Clasico’ on Sunday. The last two Clasicos were watched by a combined audience of more than one million fans in the UK, with Eleven saying this proves the strength of the country’s “appetite for Spanish football”.
The loss of the Spanish rights is a blow for Sky, which had retained the coverage in 2015 by raising its offer to £18m per year in the face of competition from BT. In 2013, Sky also lost the rights to show Champions League football after the exclusive live rights were won by BT.
Sky has been forced to make savings across its business and in February struck a deal for domestic Premier League rights which meant it would pay 16 per cent less per match than on the existing deal.
Sky had previously been forced by the arrival of BT to pay 83 per cent more for Premier League football rights, which led to cuts across the company and the loss of sports rights such as tennis.
Marc Watson, the executive chairman and group CEO of Eleven who had previously helped launch BT Sport as the chief executive of BT TV, said it was an “incredibly exciting time for our young and dynamic company,” which was founded in 2015.
“The way people, especially young people, watch live sport is changing and we always try to reflect that in the ways we make our product available,” he added.