Euroleague Basketball, the organizer of top European club competitions, has renewed its broadcast partnership in Italy with pay-TV heavyweight Sky Italia.
The new deal, which will run through the 2027-28 campaign, will see Sky Italia continue as the exclusive broadcaster of both the top-flight EuroLeague and the secondary EuroCup, covering the competitions on both its linear channels and the NOW TV OTT service.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Sky Italia has held EuroLeague rights in the country since 2021, with the broadcast deals brokered by the EuroLeague’s strategic partner, the commercial agency IMG.
This partnership extension will ensure Sky continues to provide comprehensive coverage of the Italian teams competing in both competitions, as well as a minimum of two additional fixtures each gameweek.
Beyond fixture coverage, Sky will also provide shoulder content and ancillary programming around the EuroLeague calendar, including pre-match studio analysis and prominent coverage on digital and social media platforms.
The 2025-26 season will see two Italian sides, Olimpia Milano (known as EA7 Emporio Armani Milan for sponsorship reasons) and domestic champions Virtus Bologna, both compete in the elite EuroLeague.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataA further two Italian sides, Aquila Basket Trento (known as Dolomiti Energia Trento) and Umana Reyer Venezia, will also compete in the EuroCup.
Other EuroLeague sides that may be of interest to the Italian market include Turkish giants Fenerbahce and wild card entrant BC Dubai, which boast Italian national team players Nicolo Melli and Awudu Abass, respectively.
This move is a boost for the EuroLeague in Italy, a market where it faces competition from the rival FIBA Basketball Champions League (BCL), which boasts the likes of Trapani Shark, Pallacanestro Trieste 2004, and Pallacanestro Reggiana in its 2025-26 lineup.
Recently, German side Alba Berlin defected from the EuroLeague to the BCL, possibly pre-empting a shift in thought among Europe’s elite basketball teams away from the previously commercially dominant EuroLeague, as the prospect of NBA investment hovers over the continent.
Trapani Shark president Valerio Antinini recently commented on social media that EuroLeague viewership in Italy was “low” and that he wished that US basketball’s NBA would invest in the BCL to raise its level, alluding to the model of the EuroLeague (which is a partly closed, invitation-only competition) as disincentivizing competition.
Siamo qualificati , per la prima volta storica a Trapani, ad una competizione Europea. La Pallacanestro porterà squadre di livello, offrendo ai nostri tifosi un grande spettacolo. Dove ? Beh ad oggi non ho dubbi che sarà la BCL. Competizione che premia giustamente anche la…
— Valerio Antonini (@ValerioAntoPres) May 13, 2025
The BCL was established in 2015 as a way for FIBA to wrest control of top-tier European basketball from the EuroLeague organization, which is owned by its 12 permanent member clubs, and could soon prove central to the body’s plans, after it partnered with the elite US NBA competition to collaborate on the establishment of a new European competition.
It is known that the partnership will target major European capitals such as Berlin for representation in the competition, with other major urban centres such as London, UK, and Paris, France also mooted.
If this is the case, then Alba could be the first in a string of defections from the EuroLeague as non-permanent license holders, Paris Basketball, for example, may flock to maximize revenues elsewhere.
