Atlético de Madrid and Real Sociedad terminated their respective TV rights agreements with Mediapro in 2012 -before its expiration- and signed new contracts with Digital + (Prisa group). Then, the corresponding claims by Mediapro were filed before the Spanish courts claiming for unfair termination of the agreements.
Real Sociedad also filed a lawsuit against Mediapro claiming compensations as well as demanding the termination of the contract due to payment defaults suffered during the last months. The Provincial Court of Guipúzcoa has just upheld the appeal by Mediapro and has reversed the first instance ruling, according to which Real Sociedad had not been in breach of contract and ordered the media company to pay Real Sociedad €7 million.
Now, the Provincial Court of Guipúzcoa has ordered Real Sociedad to pay back €7 million to Mediapro and declares that the payment defaults by Mediapro were not serious enough to justify terminating the contract.
Atlético de Madrid has also been "impacted" by Spanish courts' rulings. In February 2013, the First Instance Court of Madrid declared that Atlético de Madrid has been in breach of contract, due to the unjustified termination of the contract with Mediapro and the execution of a new contract with Digital +. Therefore, the Court ordered the club to pay Mediapro €10 million.
Although Atlético has appealed this ruling, the Court has obliged Atlético to pay €5.3 million as a provisional enforcement and such amount has been paid to Mediapro just a couple of days ago.
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