ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s Serie A soccer league said on Friday it would enter into private negotiations over media rights for its games after receiving offers from three broadcasters that it deemed too low.
Serie A’s statement did not name the broadcasters, but according to two sources they are DAZN, Comcast’s Sky Italia and MFE-MediaForEurope.
The media rights up for sale concern the 2024-2029 period, and private negotiations will take place on June 26, the league said.
In May, the league said it was targeting up to 7.2 billion euros from the sale of domestic TV rights, as part of efforts to close the gap with its leading European peers.
In case of no deal, the Italian league said it would meet on June 27 to examine the six bids it received for the marketing and distribution rights of a yet-to-be-created Serie A channel, according to its statement.
Serie A also said on Friday it had opened the media rights bidding for Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana games for 2024-2027.
Home to clubs such as this year’s champions Napoli, Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan, Serie A collected some 2.8 billion euros from the sale of its TV rights in Italy in the three-year cycle ending in June 2024.
Sports streaming service DAZN has most of the rights, along with Sky Italia.
That figure is only half of the amount England’s Premier League collects under its existing TV deals in its home market, according to UEFA data.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini and Elisa Anzolin, editing by Toby Davis)
