The French professional football league (LFP) has awarded MEDIAPRO the main package of broadcast rights for the 2020-21 through 2023-24 seasons. The audiovisual group will produce the matchups and apply the highest quality standards to guarantee top production and open the necessary doors for all fans to be able to follow entire games live. These broadcasting rights complete and reinforce the content of the TV channel MEDIAPRO plans to implement starting with the 2020-21 season for which it plans to exclusively broadcast 8 Ligue 1 games per round. MEDIAPRO has also been awarded broadcasting rights for programs dedicated to the second division, which will be broadcast from Tuesday through Friday.

With the rights to 8 second division games, the channel will be able to capture the interest of fans all across France and become the reference in French football starting with the 2020 season. Games are broadcast on Saturdays at 7 p.m. In Spain, the LaLiga 1/2/3 channel, produced by MEDIAPRO, simultaneously broadcasts second division games.

The football-focused channel MEDIAPRO will produce with the rights to the French league will offer uninterrupted programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week and broadcasting will be offered to all Premium TV channels operating in France. MEDIAPRO has ample experience in managing sporting rights, channel production and broadcasting content. With a turnaround of 1.6 billion euros in 2017 and an EBITDA of 189 million euros, it has a team of more than 6,500 professionals in 53 offices on 4 continents, including the MEDIAPRO France headquarters, which has been in operation for more than ten uninterrupted years. The Group produces more than 15 TV channels around the world, including several sports-themed and specifically football-themed channels like beIN Sports and beIN Sports LaLiga (in association with beIN Media Group), Real Madrid TV and Golf Channel.

The MEDIAPRO Group was responsible for the reception and distribution of the official broadcast signal from the International Media Center (IMC) at the recent G20 summit and saw the deployment of 5 satellite reception systems and 102 video and audio work stations needed for the project. In addition, it was the host broadcaster for the international press in the IMC set up in the Parque Norte (Buenos Aires).

MEDIAPRO set up 14 stand-up positions for the live services, including some exclusive feeds for clients such as Eurovision EBU and AP, among others. Overon uploaded the signal to a host of different satellites using a variety of formats. More than 50 staff worked on the production with equipment deployed from Mediapro Argentina. Around the clock coverage was provided from the 29th November to the 2nd December.

IMC at the Parque Norte

The Parque Norte was chosen for MEDIAPRO to set up the exclusive satellite communications base for the different press agencies and TV networks with additional camera operator services and press feed services. Among the host of clients Overon provided services for were international TV networks such as ZDF, NHK, BBC, Infonetwork and Spanish channels Antena 3, Telecinco, Cuatro, all with live feeds, the Russian news agency Ruptly, with signal broadcast, a set for interviews was provided for Russia’s Channel One, as well as Internet services for the Korean and Japanese governments; and 3G / 4G back-pack broadcast systems and internet broadband services for CNN, Alhurra, Sky, Bloomberg and the Reuters news agency, among others. Transmission services for the Spanish President’s press conferences were also provided and the shipment of material required for the services of the Spanish Presidency, as well as several signals for press conferences and appearances for Russian news agency Rutply.

Sites in Buenos Aires

MEDIAPRO made an exclusive satellite unit available for Al Jazeera across different sites in the Argentine capital. In addition, it also set up two different studios for Channel One (Russia) for live feeds from the Obelisco and from Corrientes Street for SRG (Switzerland).

Across the work-sites and the big-screens set up in the press tents two signals were relayed from the OB vans at the Ezeiza Airport, the Aero Parque Jorge Newbery and the Casa Rosada on the 29th and 30th November and the five rooms where the leaders of the G20 held their press conferences on the 1st December.

Production companies 100 Balas (MEDIAPRO Group) and 93 Metros have begun to develop a new documentary series as part of the framework agreement between both production houses. The project involves the portrayal of the Christian Palmarian Church, a church whose origins lie in the alleged apparition of the Virgin Mary to four Spanish schoolgirls in the town of El Palmar de Troya (Seville) in 1968. This alleged apparition brought dozens of other “seers” to the area who also claimed to see the Virgin, including Clemente Domínguez, a 20-year-old who would gradually become the principal leader of this schismatic Catholic church with followers across half the world.

The project stems from the alliance between the two companies which combines the know-how of David Beriain’s 93 Metros, a documentary and factual programming factory specialized in hostile environments and with access to areas and protagonists which are off-limits to other journalists and investigators; together with the expertise of the MEDIAPRO Group in producing major documentaries, including “The Lightbulb Conspiracy”, by Cosima Dannoritzer; “The State’s Secret Cesspit” and “Grietas”, produced for Amnesty International to mark its 40th anniversary in Spain.

The project aims to become the most comprehensive, ambitious, rigorous and documented approach to the El Palmar de Troya case that has been made so far, combining the documentary genre with the narrative structure of fiction, which will include first-hand testimonies, as-yet unpublished material and recreations of the events.

The collaboration between the production companies confirms the cooperation line initiated with the “Mafia” projects, a documentary series that covers the cultures, traditions and codes of the most powerful criminal organizations in the world; and “Black Market”, factual programme about the black market and illegal trafficking of all types of merchandise.

93 Metros

93 Metros is a television production company specializing in full-length feature documentaries based on exclusive and unique access to clandestine worlds. The company’s flagship programme Clandestino, has been running for three seasons on DMAX and has lead company founder David Beriain, to travel the globe delving deep inside some of the world’s most powerful criminal organizations. The company also produced the “Estrecho” (The Straits) special for laSexta, factual programme “La Búsqueda de Diego Cortijo” (Diego Cortijo’s Search) for Movistar+ channel #0 and La Vida en “Llamas” (Life in Flames) and “Yasuní, genocidio en la selva” (Yasuní, Genocide in The Jungle) for DMAX. The company also operates a branch specialising in news content for online newspapers and branded content.

100 Balas

Audiovisual production company 100 Balas, part of the MEDIAPRO group, is responsible for comedy hits including “Olmos and Robles” (TVE) and “Pepe’s beach Bar” (Telecinco), in addition to entertainment formats “Se hace saber” (TVE), “Sopa de Gansos” (Cuatro), “Feis tu feis” (Cuatro), “Espinete no existe” (TVE), “Fit Life” (Fox Life) and “eSports Generation” (GOL). The company has recently finished production of the political satire “Vota Juan” (Vote For Juan) (TNT), set to premiere this coming January, and at the same time is involved in several non-fiction projects.

Six months after the end of the third season, “Vis a vis” made a triumphal return last Monday, the 3rd December on FOX. The first episode of the new series was watched by 143,000 spectators, with a 0.77% share. Figures that saw the prison drama by Globomedia become the most broadcast on pay-tv over the course of the day.

With the excellent figures for the launch of the new season, “Vis a vis” is in fine fettle with nomination of one of its lead actresses: Najwa Nimri, for the Feroz Awards Best Actress in a TV drama category for her role as Zulema. The awards, created the Spanish Cinema Critics Association, will be presented at an awards ceremony on the 19th January in Bilbao.

In the new episodes, Altagracia (Adriana Paz), Saray (Alba Flores) and Zulema (Najwa Nimri), are back in jail at Cruz del Norte, where Sandoval (Ramiro Blas), the new prison warden has imposed a strict regime.

The new episodes are set to feature some new faces such as the Chilean actor Benjamín Vicuña (El hilo rojo, La memoria del agua, Fuera de carta), who plays Hierro, a new, tough prison guard at Cruz del Norte; along with Cristina Marcos (Pulsaciones, Cuéntame cómo pasó, Todos los hombres sois iguales) who plays the owner of the Cruz prison group; Georgina Amorós (Es por tu bien, Bajo Sospecha, Seis Hermanas) plays a new character close to Zulema; and Edgar Vittorino has become a mysterious inmate in one of the Cruz men’s jails. The fourth season of Vis a Vis will also see the return of some old favourites such as Palacios (Alberto Velasco), who took part in the first two seasons and Maca (Maggie Civantos), who will be back inside Cruz del Norte.

MAD Lions E.C. made history in the Iberian Cup, the League of Legends competition organised by LVP (MEDIAPRO Group) together with Riot Games, whose final phase was played at the Barcelona Games World (Fira de Barcelona). The team from Madrid, the winners of the last two editions of the Superliga Orange, were crowned champions of the first edition of a cup which brought together the best League of Legends teams from Spain and Portugal.

Vodafone were unable to exact revenge for their recent defeat in the Superliga Orange final. The Lions beat the Vodafone Giants yet again by the same score (3-1) as they did in Bilbao in front of a packed arena which saw close to two thousand people in the Orange Stadium over the three days of competition. With this win, MAD Lions E.C. have completed a 2018 to remember: Superliga Orange champions in Murcia, winners of the Superliga Orange in Bilbao and now crowned Iberian Cup winners in Barcelona. Triple winners of LVP competitions, along with the European Masters won in Katowice (Poland) in September.

The final was one of the most spectacular matches of the year packed full of excitement both on and off the battle-field. The clash kicked off with a quick win for the Giants, thanks, in part to the excellent play of Antonio “Th3Antonio” Espinosa. But if we have to highlight one player, it would have to be the Slovenian Tim “Nemesis” Lipovsek, the MAD Lions’ mid-laner who was in superb form in the last match against the Lions before signing for Fnatic, the current world runners-up. Nemesis was the mastermind behind the Lions’ fight-back in the second and the third maps, but it was in the fourth when he deployed his full repertoire. Just when it all seemed that a fifth map was needed to decide the tournament, with a big gap in the scores, Nemesis decided that he had had enough and that was that, game-over.

The LVP tournament broadcast beat audience records yet again: more than 170 thousand spectators followed the grand final of the Iberian Cup. In total, the final phase held at the Barcelona Games World brought together close to 400,000 spectators for the semi-finals and final.

KIYF and Army, worthy semi-final rivals

In the first semi-final, played on Friday, Vodafone Giants beat KIYF in spectacular fashion in a match that went to the fifth map. The Giants struck first with the Ninjas fighting back, the team from Malaga went ahead again but were pegged back to tie it up at 2-2 against the Barcelona team. In the deciding game, the Giants, who had already beaten KIYF in the semi-finals for the Superliga Orange crown, overcame a shaky start in the fifth map to book their ticket for Sunday’s final, which was won by the MAD Lions E.C.

“Sergio & Sergei”, a film directed by Ernesto Daranas and co-produced by MEDIAPRO, has been selected to compete for the Best Latin American Film 2018 award at the 24th edition of the Forqué Awards: the audiovisual rights management body EGEDA presents the awards whose awards ceremony is set to take place on the 12th January in Saragossa.

The film is set to compete alongside “Las herederas”, by Marcelo Martinessi (Paraguay, Germany, Uruguay, Brazil, France, Norway); “La noche de 12 años”, by Álvaro Brechner (Spain, Uruguay, France, Argentina); and “Roma”, by Alfonso Cuarón (Mexico).

“Sergio & Sergei”, which premiered in April has already selected for the Goya awards in the Best Ibero-American Film category, revolves around Sergei, a Soviet cosmonaut who is left stranded in his MIR space station after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Special guest appearance from Ron Perlman

Co-written by the director and Marta Daranas, and starring Tomás Cao (Sergio) and Héctor Noas (Sergei), it also features a special guest appearance from the American actor Ron Perlman ("Hellboy", "The name of the rose ") who, in addition to being one of the film’s executive producers, also plays Peter, an American journalist who helps the protagonists.

The cast also features Yuliet Cruz, Mario Guerra, Ana Gloria Buduén, Camila Arteche, Armando Miguel Gómez, Idalmis García and Rolando Raimjanov.

"Sergio & Sergei" is a MEDIAPRO, RTV Comercial and Cuban Cinema Institute (ICAIC) co-production, with the support of Paramount Channel Spain, Orange, Telecable, Movistar+ and Televisió de Catalunya. WestEnd Films is distributing the film internationally with BTEAM Pictures, in Spain.

Created in 1994, the MEDIAPRO Group has produced more than 50 films with directors such as Woody Allen (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”, “Midnight in Paris”), Oliver Stone (“Comandante”), Isabel Coixet (“Map of the Sounds of Tokyo”, “Nobody wants the night”), Fernando León de Aranoa (“Los lunes al sol”, “Princesas”, “A perfect day”), Roman Polanski (“Carnage”), Patricio Guzmán (“Salvador Allende”, “El botón de nácar”), Álex de la Iglesia (“Messi”), Manuel Huerga, (“Salvador (Puig Antich)”), Joal Cosculluela (“Esteban”) and Gaston Duprat (“Mi obra maestra”).