The Italian top flight has finally reached an agreement to sell its MENA TV rights, following beIN dispute
Serie A has accepted an offer from Abu Dhabi Media to show live Italian top flight football in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), after more than a year in the cold in the region.
After Serie A parted ways with its previous MENA broadcast partner beIN Sports, the league was forced to show matches in the region completely free on YouTube.
This new deal will allow Serie A to once again generate revenues in the Middle East and North Africa.
The crux of the Serie A beIN Sports dispute
The dispute which led to the cancellation of their previous deal with beIN centred around criticsim from the broadcaster of Serie A's response to piracy concerns, specifically its handling of the BeoutQ crisis.
BeoutQ was an illegal piracy network formed, according to beIN Sports, by the Saudi state, which stole beIN Sports' content and distributed it to its people. The situation, which has now been resolved, caused a great deal of tension between the two nations' governments. Among the coverage aired in Saudi Arabia on BeoutQ was Serie A and beIN felt that the Italians didn't do enough to combat this piracy.
Serie A will now partner up with Abu Dhabi Media, the state media arm of Abu Dhabi, to broadcast its matches in the MENA region. For the next three seasons, the Emiriati-based organisation will be the sole broadcaster in the Middle East and North Africa. It is reported to have paid more than €75m for the rights to show Serie A for the next three seasons.
How much money will Serie A make from Abu Dhabi deal?
The revenue generated from this new deal with Abu Dhabi Media pales in comparison to what was coming in during the beIN Sports deal, for which the Qatari-owned media entity paid around €112m per season, almost 4.5 times what will be paid by the new partner.
Despite the new figure being much lower than the last, Serie A executives will likely be happy to have a legitimate broadcast partner in the region once again and to be generating some income from its TV rights, having spent two seasons giving away most Serie A matches for free on their Arabic YouTube channel.
There had been talk recently of a reconciliation between Serie A and beIN Sports. Roma owner Dan Friedkin had reportedly been among those pivotal to the negotiations as the two attempted to find a way to work together again.
Ultimately, mistrust of Serie A executives on the part of beIN and supposed dissatisfaction with the negotiation process saw the Qataris pull out of the running, leaving the path clear for Abu Dhabi Media to take over. The offer on the table from beIN is said to have been larger than the one which Abu Dhabi Media will pay, but the two parties were unable to come to an agreement.
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