Audiovisual Sport (AVS) was a Spanish company dedicated to "buy, manage, exploit and administer Spanish football

Liga Liga or LIGA may refer to: People * Līga (name), a Latvian female given name * Luciano Ligabue, more commonly known as Ligabue or ''Liga'', Italian rock singer-songwriter Sports * Liga ACB, men's professional basketball league in Spain * Liga ...

and

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

rights.'' The company was created in 1997 as a joint venture of the three main soccer TV rights owners in Spain, namely

Sogecable PRISA Televisión, S.A.U (PRISA TV) is a pay TV company in Spain. History and profile PRISA TV was established in 1989 and controlled (as of 2007) by PRISA. It was the first company to introduce interactive systems and specially digital tel ...

(40%), Telefónica de Contenidos (a subsidiary of

Telefónica Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadba ...

) (40%), and the

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

government TV network (

Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals The Catalan Media Corporation ( ca, Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals, CCMA; ) is the public radio and television company in Catalonia owned by Generalitat de Catalunya. The CCRTV is a public corporation created by the Generalitat de Ca ...

, or CCMA) (20%). AVS enjoyed a monopoly on Spanish soccer rights, which caused an investigation by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

, cleared in 2003. In 2003 Sogecable bought Telefónica's stake, therefore increasing its share to 80%. In 2007 a row erupted between AVS and the other main owner of Spanish soccer rights, namely

Mediapro Mediaproducción, S.L.U., better known as Mediapro, is a multimedia communications group in Spain founded in April 1994 in Barcelona. The company is well involved in movie and television production. The company holds branch offices in Madrid, Se ...

.Audiovisual Sport sues Mediapro - Entertainment News, Business News, Media - Variety
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References

Mass media companies of Spain {{media-company-stub