Sky Italia (Italy)

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Italy’s Lega Serie A will launch a tender in April for its domestic media rights for the three seasons from 2021-22 to 2023-24, SportBusiness Media understands. The delay opens space for the resolution of several outstanding issues that have, so far, complicated the process.

Pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has paid a 50-per-cent uplift to agree a three-year extension of its rights to ATP Masters 1000 events and the end-of-season ATP Finals.

Competition between pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia and OTT platform DAZN for the rights to the American National Basketball Association ensured the former paid a substantial uplift for exclusive rights in the country from 2019-20 to 2022-23.

Sky Italia is taking a calculated gamble in agreeing a two-year sublicensing deal with Mediaset for Uefa Champions League rights. Sky’s legal dispute with Italian public-service broadcaster Rai over the latter's option to renew the rights has not yet been resolved. If Rai eventually wins, it could sue Sky for damages.

The rights value in Italy for the pre-season International Champions Cup football tournament was weighed down by a combination of lower inventory, a busy summer sports calendar and a tough market environment, SportBusiness Media understands.

Lega Serie A, the operating body of the top division of Italian club football, and domestic rights-holder, pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia, have hit out at comments by Italian sports minister Vincenzo…

Sky Italia has won its appeal against the country’s antitrust authority’s decision to bar the pay-television broadcaster for three years from acquiring exclusive content rights over internet platforms.

Italian pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has said that it will consult with Lega Serie A over whether to broadcast this Sunday’s fixture between Juventus and Inter Milan on its free-to-air channel T…

Pay-television broadcaster Sky has extended the remit of Stephen van Rooyen, its head of UK operations, to encompass its German and Italian operations

Features

DAZN picks up Copa América at bargain price as rivals focus elsewhere DAZN, Sky, Mediaset bid for International Champions Cup Rai to share Women’s World Cup with Sky, show Uefa U21s exclusively Pr

Pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland has raised its annual outlay on two of golf’s majors, the PGA Championship and Open Championship, by almost half to secure its dominance over the sport in the DACH region against the threat of US media group Discovery.

Mediaset ‘at the window’ for Champions League as Rai-Sky renewal talks stall Broadcaster is thought to have offered uplift on Rai’s €40m per season Refi

England’s Premier League secured a modest increase in the value of its rights in Italy in this week’s deal with incumbent rights-holder Sky Italia.

Italian state broadcaster Rai acquired extensive free-to-air television highlights and radio rights to the country’s second football division, Lega B, for the next three seasons, 2018-19 to 2020-21, i…

Pay-television platform Sky Italia and Perform Group’s OTT service DAZN will probably both be happy with the outcome of an intense period of rights negotiations in Italy.

Italy’s Lega Serie A moved into private negotiations with broadcasters this week for rights to the next three seasons, from 2018-19 to 2020-21, having cancelled its contract with Mediapro.

Lega Serie A and its media-rights adviser Infront are on a collision course with the Mediapro agency, which was appointed intermediary for the league’s domestic live rights, after the Spanish agency failed to meet this week’s deadline to pay its guarantee. 

Spanish agency Mediapro said this week it wanted to create and distribute a Serie A league channel on the same model as the LaLiga channel it distributes in Spain. But Italian law may make this impossible.

Italian public-service broadcaster Rai has bounced back from losing out on rights to this summer’s Fifa World Cup by agreeing three important football deals.

Pay-television operator Sky Italia believes its acquisition of exclusive rights to motor racing’s Formula One world championship can expand its subscriber base, which has been stuck at 4.7m to 4.8m for more than five years.

Italy’s Lega Serie A is hoping to earn €1.05bn ($1.26bn) per season for its domestic live rights in this month’s tender process. To hit that figure, or even come close to it, the league will need to do something it has failed to do in previous auctions: secure an offer which meets its valuation of its OTT rights.

Pay-television platform Sky Italia is thought to have agreed to pay just over €300m ($336m) per season for exclusive rights to the Uefa Champions League and Europa League from 2018-19 to 2020-21.

Lega Serie A’s invitation to tender for its media rights could allow Sky Italia to secure a monopoly of Serie A rights in the next cycle, dealing a potentially fatal blow to its main rival Mediaset Premium. Bids are due tomorrow, June 10.

The vindication last month by a Roman court of the way Lega Serie A sold its media rights for the current cycle was absolute, but not definitive.

Mike Kiernan reviews television audiences across the big five markets for the recently concluded Formula One World Championship

Will Partington, research analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, examines television audiences for motorcycling’s MotoGP World Championship in selected European markets.

Lega Serie A and Uefa are in a race to be first to sell their rights in Italy for the period 2018-19 to 2020-21.

Sky Italia has strengthened its grip on the NBA in Italy by becoming the league’s sole media partner in its new two-season deal, and has done so without paying an increased rights fee.