Serie A clubs met in Milan today to discuss, among other matters, the ongoing issue regarding the sale of the leagues television rights. Serie A news and finance website Calcio e Finanza report:
“It will be a largely interlocutory assembly and no decision will be made on the most important issue: that of the 2024-2029 Serie A television rights. It is inevitable, however, that the issue will be in the background, considering that the current bids submitted by DAZN, Sky and Mediaset will remain valid until 15 October.
The rights issue has been dormant since 26 July – the date of the last summer assembly on the subject – until the last few days, when Lega CEO Luigi De Siervo returned to speak. The executive used rather harsh tones to say that the current offers are not enough – with a gap of tens of millions of euros -, that broadcasters should pay a fair price for the product and that Serie A will not be ‘grabbed around the neck’ by anyone.
Should an agreement not be reached, ‘we will not back down and will directly make our offer to the public,’ he explained. The novelty does not lie so much in the reference to the Lega channel, an option already present in the call for bids and for which (in the event that negotiations with the broadcasters fail) the six envelopes containing the intermediaries’ offers will be opened.
The most interesting aspect is the possibility of going directly to the public with an offer (and thus a product, subscription, etc.) instead of going through the distribution of the channel via any interested platforms.
There should be no problems from this point of view at the antitrust level, although it should be considered that the commitment on the infrastructural front would be considerable. One only has to think of the experience of DAZN itself, which has invested millions of euro over the years in order to offer the best possible service.”
