How to value a TV show: GAMES Econ breaks down the profits of a major TV contest in Spain
In a ruling dated 16 April 2026, the Appeal Court of Madrid (“Audiencia Provincial”) establishes that the media group MEDIASET must pay €73 million to ITV, the production company that owns the format of the leading Spanish TV contest “Pasapalabra”, for broadcasting the show without a licence during the 2012–2019 period. The ruling amends the first-instance judgment, which had set the compensation at €44 million. The amount represents the highest damages award for an intellectual property infringement ever recorded in Spain.
A prior ruling had determined that the Pasapalabra format derived from the British TV show “The Alphabet Game” and, that ITV held the intellectual property rights.
GAMES Econ advised ITV on the methodology for quantifying the compensation, reflecting the profits generated by the TV programme. The ruling endorses the approach proposed by GAMES Econ, which considers all advertising revenues generated during the broadcasting of the programme and limits deductible costs to those incurred uniquely and exclusively as a consequence of that broadcasting. In line with GAMES Econ’s proposed methodology, the ruling also accepts the existence of a “lead-in effect”: the phenomenon whereby the audience of a successful programme tends to stay on the same channel out of inertia or convenience, bringing a substantial number of viewers to the programme that follows. The court determines that this effect should be reflected in the quantum of the compensation.
The GAMES Econ team, led by Juan Delgado and Héctor Otero and including, among others, Iván Gil and Isabel Veguín, worked in close coordination with the legal team at Baylos (now Abion), comprising Pedro Merino Baylos, David Gómez and María Elena Juan.
