Luigi De Servio urges Italian government to extend bidding process and tackle piracy in order to generate greater revenues
The CEO of the Italian top flight, Luigi De Servio, has told an Italian news outlet that the league needs more time to negotiate domestic broadcast rights deals. He feels that given more time to deliberate, potential partners would be more inclined to bid for the rights.
Currently, Serie A is only allowed to take offers from broadcasters for three years each domestic rights cycle. De Siervo is attempting to convince the government to increase this to five years, in the hope of attracting more bidders.
In the interview with II Sole 24 Ore, he said this change would be "essental" in giving potential broadcast partners the opportunity to analyse and plan their investments. This time would, he believes, encourage more broadcasters to come forward.
The government already made such a change with regards to the international rights of the Italian top flight. They lifted the three year restriction on those rights, and now De Siervo hopes they will do the same with the domestic rights.
Serie A is hoping to boost its international broadcast revenue threefold between now and 2030 and it is believed that this lifting of restrictions will help contribute to this goal.
DAZN famously hold the Serie A domestic rights at present, after they became the first streaming platform to pick up the exclusive rights to a major European league. They have since sold some of those rights to linear broadcaster Sky Italia. The deal with the two is up at the end of next season.
Serie A will look to complete a lucrative deal for the next cycle in order to compete more closely with the likes of the Premier League and La Liga.
It will certainly be an uphill battle, and one that won't be helped by the growing piracy issue the league is facing.
In that interview with II Sole 24 Ore, De Servio spoke on the piracy problem:
“If we fail to take serious action, our future and that of the entire audiovisual industry risks being seriously compromised.”
This interview isn't the first time De Servio has addressed the government. He has had a rather tumultuous relationship with the Italian government since he took over at Serie A in 2018. Last year he memorably accused the governent of "hating football" in reference to their perceived lack of support for the sport during the coronavirus pandemic.
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