3Cat Snubs FIATC Girona for Real Madrid Women’s Match Broadcast

Public broadcaster 3Cat relegated FIATC Girona’s FIBA Europe Cup match against Szolnoki to digital-only streaming on Tuesday, choosing to air a women’s UEFA Champions League fixture featuring Real Madrid on its Esport3 television channel instead. The scheduling decision marks the latest instance of a Catalan regional team losing linear television coverage to accommodate a Madrid-based club. The match, which also aired on Disney+, left basketball supporters to follow the European fixture online.

Szolnoki Trip Relegated to Digital Platforms

FIATC Girona traveled to Hungary for the fourth round of the FIBA Europe Cup, with tip-off scheduled for 6:00 p.m. local time. Rather than broadcasting the match on Esport3, the network slated a 6:45 p.m. UEFA Champions League women’s football match between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid for the television slot. Consequently, basketball supporters had to access 3Cat’s digital applications or online platforms to watch the European fixture live. The Girona match only appeared on the Esport3 linear schedule at 8:40 p.m., well after the final buzzer.

Precedents Involving Spar Girona and Bàsquet Girona

The broadcast priority reflects a recurring pattern in 3Cat’s sports programming. In December 2025, the network moved a women’s EuroLeague game featuring Spar Girona against French side Carolo—which ended in a 68-83 victory for Roberto Íñiguez’s players—to digital streaming. Esport3 chose instead to air a men’s Copa del Rey football tie between Talavera and Real Madrid—a match simultaneously broadcasted on national public television via La 1 of Televisión Española. Followers of Spar Girona also had the option of Movistar+, which held the rights to the women’s EuroLeague and aired the match on its Ellas Vamos channel, alongside 3Cat’s app, while TV3 aired a women’s Champions League match between Paris and Barça. Earlier in the 2025–26 season, Spar Girona’s domestic league derby against Joventut was also pushed to digital channels after initially being scheduled for Esport3 following a Segunda RFEF match between Atlètic Lleida and Barça Atlètic, as network schedulers opted to broadcast a FC Barcelona club assembly instead. The men’s program has experienced comparable shifts; last season, TV3 prioritized a women’s football match between Deportivo de la Coruña and Barcelona, transferring a Bàsquet Girona versus Andorra fixture to the secondary Esport3 channel.

3Cat and Esport3 Maintain Diverse Sports Coverage

The scheduling choices arrive as 3Cat continues its broadcast of the Liga Endesa, a competition the public broadcaster reclaimed last season after a decade away from linear screens. FIATC Girona returns to domestic and European competition following Tuesday’s clash in Szolnok, while Esport3 maintains its coverage mix of regional clubs and major European football properties.