Spain expands internet blocking to tennis, golf, and movie broadcast time slots

A Spanish court has approved Telefónica Audiovisual Digital's authority to conduct dynamic IP blocking covering content beyond football.

Under the existing LaLiga blocking, attempts to block only illegal broadcasts repeatedly resulted in the side effect of also blocking legitimate sites sharing the same IP, and the Spanish government has acknowledged this harm.

This latest order was approved by Barcelona Commercial Court No. 9, and is valid until the end of the 2026/27 season. The blocking targets domains, URLs, and IP addresses, and when CDNs like Cloudflare are included, legitimate services may also be affected.

The scope of application has also widened.

• Beyond the existing major telecom operators, it now includes Movistar, MásOrange, Vodafone, Digi, and smaller ISPs
• Operators that receive the list provided by Telefónica must execute the block within a maximum of 30 minutes
• The blocking is repeatedly applied every day there is a live sports broadcast

The first enforcement was the Champions League match between Atlético Madrid and Barcelona on April 14, and it was also applied the following day to the Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid match. Going forward, blocking is set to expand in the same manner to other sports such as tennis and golf, as well as to movie and series broadcast time slots.