Clubs from Italian men’s soccer’s top-tier Serie A have today (October 23) voted to accept a domestic media rights offer for the next five seasons from current partners Sky Italia (pay-TV) and DAZN (streaming).
The bids from the incumbent rights-holders through to 2029 are worth at least €4.5 billion ($4.8 billion) in total, equating to €900 million per season. This is a small drop from the current fees paid by Sky and DAZN, however, which come to €930 million annually.
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The current three-season deal in operation was unveiled in early 2021.
DAZN is set to pay €700 million yearly to cover every fixture during the five seasons, while Sky will contribute €200 million annually to co-broadcast three weekly games (alongside DAZN) out of the 10. In total, 266 games out of 380 each year will only be available with a DAZN subscription.
Of the 20 Serie A clubs, 17 backed the offer – Napoli are unlikely to have been amongst these, with their owner Aurelio De Laurentiis telling media: “It's a total defeat for Italian football, these deals will be the death of Italian football.”
The voting follows a drawn-out and at times painful process over five months to determine the next destination of the rights during the next cycle, which runs from the start of 2024-25 to the end of 2028-29.
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By GlobalDataLuigi De Siervo, the Serie A chief executive, said that when several variable components (such as revenue shares) are taken into account, the new deal’s value could well top that of the current agreement, and could potentially hit €1 billion.
Shay Segev, chief executive of DAZN Group, has now commented: “DAZN has worked incredibly hard over the past five years to deliver for Serie A, its clubs and their fans. We are grateful to the trust they have put in us for the next five years to keep delivering, innovating, and driving the enjoyment and passion that Italian football is renowned for. It’s a fantastic outcome for all parties.”
Offering a balanced view on the new deals, in contrast to De Laurentiis, was Torino chair Urbano Cairo, who said: "Figures were below our initial expectations and below our current contracts…but I think we were right to continue our relationship with Sky and DAZN.”
The tender was originally issued in late May, with the league then having held private negotiations with three broadcasters – likely to have been Sky, DAZN, and commercial network MediaForEurope (formerly Mediaset).
In the invitation to tender, broadcasters were able to bid to acquire rights for three, four, or five seasons from 2024-25. The ITT featured a total of eight packages with “different configurations.”
Italian communications regulator AGCOM and antitrust body AGCM both gave the green light for Serie A to sell its domestic broadcast rights over a five-year cycle, which it has not been able to do in the past.
The packages include exclusive and co-exclusive options for the league’s 10 weekly matches, as well as an opportunity for a free-to-air game on Saturday evenings.
Serie A’s overseas rights sales process is also taking place currently, having got underway in August.
That process has initially begun with a tender having been issued for rights across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
