Live streaming behemoth Amazon has been forced to sublicense its rights to the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi final between AC Milan and Inter Milan from the San Siro on Wednesday 10th May.
Amazon Prime Video holds the rights to its choice of Wednesday matches from each UCL gameweek, but has been forced to sell its rights to this particular game to a third party, following a ruling from Italian media regulator AGCOM. Consequently, the American streaming service has accepted a bid from TV8 to provide coverage of the match.
Under Italian law, any semi final in the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League which involves an Italian side must be made available free-to-air to the wider Italian public, as they are considered "listed" events.
Following a bidding process, Amazon is understood to have sublicensed the rights to TV8, which is the free-to-air arm of pay-TV broadcaster Sky Italia.
However, despite appearing on TV8, the coverage will retain the same production and presentation elements of a usual Amazon Prime Video football broadcast.
Mediaset to show Milan derby second leg
Under its €80m deal with UEFA, Amazon has the rights to provide exclusive live coverage of its pick of games from each Wednesday of the competition, as well as replays, highlights and more.
However, free-to-air network Mediaset holds the same rights but for Tuesdays, meaning the second leg of this Champions League semi final Milan derby is already set to be on free TV on Tuesday 16th May, with no action needed by any parties.
While both Amazon and Mediaset have their choice of a game apiece during each gameweek on their respective days, the lion's share of Champions League rights in Italy go to pay-TV giant Sky.
Sky Italia holds the exclusive rights to 121 live matches from the competition per season, as well as a bunch of other content including highlights and talk shows.
Both Amazon and Sky's deals with UEFA are set to run until the end of the 2023-24 campaign, but both are expected to renew with the governing body for the 2024-27 rights cycle too.
Europa League semi finals also protected
As the UEL is protected under the same law as the UCL, all four semi final clashes from this year's competition should air on free-to-air television in Italy.
Both semi finals feature Italian sides, with Roma facing Bayer Leverkusen in their first leg in Rome and Juventus welcoming Sevilla to Turin. Both legs take place on Thursday 11th May, with the reverse fixtures occuring a week later.
UEFA Europa League rights in Italy are held by paid broadcasters DAZN and Sky. It is unclear as yet where these games will end up, but according to Italian law, all four semi final legs should be available to the Italian public on free television.
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