According to the Telegraph, Sky “dramatically pulled out of the bidding process” for the rights to La Liga for the next three years, leaving BT free to add exclusive coverage of Spanish football to its ever-increasing stable of rights, including exclusive Champions League coverage.

Liga Costa is better than Neymar and Hazard, says Filipe Luis 13/10/2017 AT 06:06

The Daily Mail’s media correspondent Charles Sale described the dramatic development as “a further sign that Sky Sports massively overspent in paying £11million a match for their Premier League coverage.”

According to the well-informed Sale:

It is understood that Sky made a far bigger first-round offer for La Liga, but were upset enough about the tender going to a second round that they withdrew from a contest BT believed they had no chance of winning.

It means Sky have surrendered the rights they have held for nearly two decades, with BT set to bring El Clasico and Spain’s other premier fixtures to UK households.

Sky prevented BT from making any inroads into their prized Premier League rights when securing 126 live games per season from 2016-2019, compared to BT’s 42, but they had to pay £4.176bn of the total £5.14bn in order to do so.

The loss of La Liga is another blow to Sky, which has seen BT Sport steadily accumulate live rights to build up an impressive portfolio.

Live football on BT Sport this season

38 Premier League games

FA Cup (shared with BBC)

Champions League

Europa League

Serie A

Bundesliga

Ligue 1

Portugal’s Primeira Liga

Swiss Super League

Brazilian football

Australian A-League

Scottish Premiership and Football League (shared with Sky)

Vanarama National League

Live football on Sky Sports this season

116 Premier League games

Euro 2016 qualifiers (shared with ITV)

Football League

Capital One Cup

Football League Trophy

Scottish Premiership and Football League (shared with BT)

MLS

Dutch Eredivisie

Liga Neymar ‘90%’ to leave Barcelona 22/07/2017 AT 13:34