Renfe has a new claim to win the game against Iryo and Ouigo and it has nothing to do with the price: football

Renfe has two great rivals with Ouigo and Iryo, but it has just shown them that traveling by AVE or AVLO goes far beyond going from one place to another. In a move that few expected, Renfe has announced which becomes the first railway operator to offer all Spanish LaLiga football matches live.

Free LaLiga through PlayRenfe. Starting this week, Renfe will offer LaLiga EA Sports (Primera) and LaLiga Hypermotion (Segunda) matches through the LaLiga TV Bar channel. All matches from the two main Spanish leagues will be available on AVE and AVLO trains for free and live.

In order to watch these matches we must use PlayRenfe, its content application and free WiFi service. In addition to those from LaLiga, those from the Champions League will also be offered.

PlayRenfe as an off-road entertainment service. The Renfe platform already offered different content, but now it has taken a significant leap in terms of what we can find. In addition to all football, PlayRenfe also offers movies and series.

It is something equivalent to what we have in airplane entertainment systems, but with one big difference: on trains there is internet coverage. This allows them to offer live content such as football matches.

Competing beyond prices. A traveler who has to decide between two companies at a similar price may opt for the AVE or AVLO simply because they can watch football. Instead of trying to lower Renfe’s costs, the strategy involves improving the quality of the experience by allying with other important players in the country, in this case LaLiga.

Renfe’s problems competing with Ouigo and Iryo. The Government has announced that it will report Ouigo for unfair competition due to low prices. “What was originally going to be a competition has turned into a war,” described Oscar Puente, Minister of Transportation. “If the French company does not want to lose money in the next 10 years, prices will have to be raised, there is no other solution.”

Unlike what Ouigo does with some lines such as the one between Madrid and Zaragoza, Renfe does not seek to operate at a loss. To try to change this trend, the national operator is looking for arguments to try to keep prices at a sustainable level.

Too late to change the “low-cost” model? The price battle on trains has led to an extreme situation, where some train tickets already cost less than the taxi to the station. It is something that was experienced years ago in the aviation sector with Ryanair. An airline whose latest public messages are along the lines of raising prices.

Right now in the Spanish train sector there is a real price battle, but with movements like football we see that they are already looking for alternatives to move away from that model.

In Xataka | “Prices will have to be raised, there is no other solution”: the Government denounces unfair competition between Ouigo and Renfe