Serie A, the top football league in Italy, has received three offers that it deemed too low for its next media rights cycle.
Consequently, the league will enter into private negotiations with these broadcasters on June 26th. The new media rights package is up for sale between 2024-2029 and in May of this year, Serie A said it was targeting up to €7.2bn ($8.5bn) from domestic TV rights sales to compete with peers across Europe.
Although not named by the league statement, two sources have claimed that DAZN, Sky Italia and MFE are the potential broadcasters behind these offers
In the same statement, Serie A also said that it would be opening the media rights bidding process for the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana for a period of time between 2024 and 2027.
The main media rights of Serie A are held by both DAZN and Sky Italia.
There is a glaring gap between Serie A and other leagues when it comes to media rights deals
Despite being one of Europe's "big five" leagues alongside Spain's La Liga and Germany's Bundesliga among others", Italian football has struggled financially since winning the World Cup in 2006.
It has been partly due to falling attendances at stadiums but primarily because broadcast revenue hasn’t kept pace with rivals around Europe such as those within England’s Premier League.
The Premier League in England currently generates almost double what Serie A takes from domestic broadcasts alone - £1.5bn ($2bn) per season compared to Serie A’s current €973m ($1.16bn), according to a report released by Deloitte earlier this year.
EPL has benefited enormously over recent years thanks largely due to global distribution deals including an impressive uptake within Asia-Pacific markets specifically China where demand for high-level sports content is growing exponentially over recent times.
In conclusion, while these talks may lead to positive developments for Italian football and create market competition; it is clear that more needs to be done for Serie A’s TV rights revenue streams to reach levels comparable with their peers across Europe and further afield.
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