Serie A targets up to 7.2 bln euros from next domestic media rights deal
Sports
Napoli, Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan, Serie A collected 2.8b euros from sale of TV rights
MILAN (Reuters) - Serie A is targeting up to 7.2 billion euros ($7.9 billion) from its upcoming sale of domestic TV rights as Italy's top soccer league seeks to extend the duration of contracts to up to five years and trim the revenue gap with other countries.
"We have tapped market in the past months and we found that operators are keen on longer contracts as they see higher returns from their investment," Serie A Chief Executive Luigi De Siervo told reporters on Tuesday.
Home to clubs such as 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. DAZN has most of the rights, along with Comcast's Sky Italia.
That figure is only a half of the amount England's Premier League collects under its existing TV deals in its home market, according to UEFA data. In a bid to lure broadcasters, De Siervo said on Tuesday he had set up eight different tender schemes that could be sold.
Each scheme features contracts ranging from three to five years and packages of games with different degrees of exclusivity. The sale process will kick-off in June. Figures the league is targeting range from 3.6 billion euros under three-year contracts to 7.2 billion euros over a five-year period.
Typically, bidders tend to submit offers below the targets, and subsequently the league start talks with suitors to improve offers to get as close as possible to targets. In a shift from previous sale processes, Serie A will collect bids for single Saturday night matches, opening up competition also to free-to-air broadcasters along with pay-TV operators.
In a nod to the Prime Video platform run by e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN.O), the Italian league will also tender the right to screen matches ahead of big retail events such as Valentine's Day, Black Friday and the re-opening of schools after the summer.
Should the sale process prove unsuccessful, De Siervo said Serie A will kick off a bidding process to select a long-term financial partner to create its own media platform to distribute matches, a venture for which several banks and private equity funds have expressed their interest. ($1 = 0.9084 euros)
