The final of men's soccer's 2023-24 UEFA Europa League will be broadcast free-to-air (FTA) in Italy after the performance of Italian sides in the competition triggered a clause with the country’s Authority for Communications (AGCOM).
Italian free-to-air state broadcaster Rai will broadcast the final of European soccer’s secondary international club competition – in which Bergamo-based Atalanta will take on Germany's Bayer Leverkusen. That fixture will take place on May 22 in Dublin, Ireland, and will be covered live on the primary Rai 1 channel.
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Broadcast regulations in Italy require pay-TV broadcasters to partner with a free-to-air broadcaster to make events relevant to the national interest accessible to the public. The 2023-24 Europa League final has been deemed as such due to the presence of Atalanta, with no Italian side having won the competition since Parma in 1999 when the competition was called the UEFA Cup under a different format.
The competition’s final will also still be broadcast on pay-TV's Sky Italia, which holds the rights for all UEFA club competitions in Italy through 2027 (with this game being the last of the 2021-24 cycle), and over-the-top streaming service DAZN.
Atalanta bested France's Olympique Marseille in the semi-finals, while fellow Italian side Roma were defeated by Bayer 04 in the opposite side of the draw, dashing hopes of an all-Italian final.
Rai also broadcast two quarter-final matches and two semi-final matches of this year’s Europa League after agreeing a sub-licensing deal with Sky for the competition, having done the same in 2022-23.
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By GlobalDataIt remains to be seen whether or not the final of UEFA’s tertiary competition, the Europa Conference League, will receive similar FTA treatment.
The 2023-24 Conference League final will see Italian side Fiorentina face off against Greece’s Olympiacos in Athens on May 29, and will be broadcast in Italy again by Sky Italia and DAZN, but no FTA agreement has been announced for it, despite the 2022-23 final (which also featured Fiorentina) being broadcast on Rai alongside Sky and DAZN.
