LaLigaTV gives Spanish football a cutting-edge 24-hour home in the UK with ‘Star Wars hologram’ interviews

From next Monday, January 13, LaLiga will have its own 24-hour dedicated television channel in the UK.

After a year of uncertainty which saw the competition broadcast initially only via a streaming service on Eleven Sports and then briefly on ITV after renegotiation in mid-season, Spanish football now has a permanent home.

LaLigaTV started in 2017-18 and is launching in the UK this month, allowing fans of Spanish football to watch every single game of Spain’s top flight and also the Segunda – all in one place.

With a minimum of 15 television cameras at the stadium of every La Liga team, including an aerial camera in 14 of the 20 grounds and a 360 camera in eight, LaLigaTV is the UK’s first dedicated channel offering all live content from a top global football competition.

Algorithms are used to come up with the 10 different time slots for fixtures, taking into account the potential interest from different markets and territories in each game around the world.

All 10 can be seen live in the UK from January 13, except during the Saturday blackout between 2.45pm and 5.15pm. Any games scheduled at that time will be shown later in full.

Every single stadium is linked up to the control rooms in LaLigaTV’s studios in Barcelona, where all of the panels and talk shows take place throughout the week.

As part of match coverage, LaLigaTV will feature post-match interviews with English-speaking players to tailor coverage for the international market.

Each club has provided a list of the players who speak English and, where possible, one footballer will be chosen from each team to be interviewed after a game.

LaLigaTV will also use innovative new augmented reality technology, which allows a player at the stadium to appear virtually via a hologram image in the studio for a live post-match interview

Movistar+ has already featured the technology in LaLiga this season (as seen above), with Real Sociedad’s Willian Jose and Barcelona’s Ivan Rakitic two of the players interviewed via hologram from the studio by presenter Danae Boronat.

With LaLiga already broadcasting in 182 countries around the world on different television and online platforms, the specialised LaLigaTV channel offers a Monday highlights show, classic matches, a daily magazine programme, including features and interviews, in addition to all the live games.

An interview with former Barcelona midfielder Xavi will be aired on January 15, while viewers can also watch an exclusive chat with Lionel Messi later in the month, as part of a documentary on 90 years of LaLiga.

Via its UK and Ireland broadcast partner Premier Sports, LaLigaTV reached an agreement with SKY in December to broadcast as a standalone channel on the platform in the UK and will include a two-week free trial for subscribers.

Following the initial two-week free trial period, the channel will be available to SKY TV subscribers for £5.99 per month (as a standalone HD channel) or £11.99 per month when purchased in a bundle alongside Premier Sports 1 and Premier Sports 2 HD channels.

Former Arsenal right-back Lauren, one of LaLigaTV’s expert analysts, told Standard Sport: “It’s the best league in the world, with the best player in the world which is Messi, and it’s great that people in the UK will be able to watch.

“People in the UK who love football want to see the Premier League, but they also want to see LaLiga. It’s a great initiative.”

Presenter Simon Hanley said: “I think it’s great news. There are brilliant clubs who aren’t just Barcelona and Real Madrid. There are fantastic stories in La Liga. Great players, great managers, different styles, different approaches.

“Not everything in Spain is possession-based, not everything is Tiki Taka. And I think it’s genuinely great it’s going to be available in the UK.”

Guillem Balague, who previously featured on Sky’s Revista de LaLiga, added: “You can’t do a show like that any more, where two or three people come on and say what’s happening. Now they tell you what’s happening.

“So what do you do? You go deeper. We speak to the players in depth. For example, we were in Qatar to speak to Xavi, to see what kind of coach he will be. On top of that, you have all the live coverage. It’s a great package.”

And on the possibility of interviewing players via the new augmented reality tech, presenter Semra Hunter said: “The Star Wars hologram! I’m excited about that. I think it’s really fascinating. It’s very cool.

“It’s very futuristic but also happening now. It’s great to make use of this new kind of technology.

LaLigaTV will also be launched as a standalone channel on Sky and via other platforms in Ireland from January 29.