- Total fees in Italy for 2024 Uefa European Championship increase to around €115m
- Split between Rai and Sky Italia thought to be around 85:15, in separate deals
- Although Mediaset also interested, limited competition for rights, particularly pay-TV
Uefa and the CAA Eleven agency earned a combined uplift in Italy from Rai and Sky Italia for European Championship rights, SportBusiness Media has learned.
It is thought that public-service broadcaster Rai and pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia are paying a total of around €115m ($125m) in separate deals for Euro 2024, which will take place in Germany from June 14 to July 14.
Rai’s deal is understood to be around 85 per cent of the total, an increase on its contribution towards European Championship rights historically. This puts its fee for Euro 2024 at around €98m, with Sky Italia thought to be paying in the region of €17m.
For Euro 2020, Rai is thought to have paid between €75m and €80m for free-to-air rights, while Sky’s fee for pay-television rights was about €25m. Rai showed 27 matches co-exclusively; Sky showed all 51 games.
Rights to all Uefa national team competitions are sold on the governing body’s behalf by CAA Eleven.
Rai had previously paid an increase for its rights to Euro 2020, due to aggressive bidding from commercial broadcaster Mediaset. Sources say Mediaset was again interested in securing Euro 2024 rights – both free-to-air and pay-television – but not ultimately at the financial level required.
Sky will show all 51 matches of Euro 2024, 20 of which will be exclusive. Rai, meanwhile, will show 31 matches co-exclusively, but this includes all Italy matches, as well as all four quarter-finals, both semi-finals, and the final.
Italy will be seeking to defend its title after winning the postponed Euro 2020 tournament three years ago. The final between Italy and England attracted an average audience of 18.2 million viewers on Rai, with 2.4 million subscribers watching on Sky.
With its deal for Euro 2024, Rai has maintained its investment in marquee international tournaments. It was left open for criticism after opting to retain exclusive rights in Italy to the 2022 Fifa World Cup, for which Italy had failed to qualify. For the final, however, Rai registered an audience of 12.9 million and a 68.6-per-cent share during the opening 90 minutes. The audience on the Rai 1 channel rose to just under 15 million (a 71.5-per-cent share) during the extra-time period and then 16.1 million (a 74.3-per-cent share) during the penalty shootout.
Italy qualified for Euro 2024 after a tense final qualifying game against Ukraine. Rai’s deal for Euro 2024 rights was sealed well before Italy’s qualification was guaranteed.
The draw with Ukraine last year was the second most-watched football match of the year in the country on free-to-air television. Rai 1 drew an average audience of 8.78 million, a 38.65-per-cent market share, for the game which was being played in Leverkusen, Germany, due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Rai holds rights to Italy’s matches over the current two-year period, from 2022-23 to 2023-24. Sky Italia acquired a package of third-party rights to Uefa national team matches over the same period. The rights were not fully exclusive, however, with Mediaset having acquired rights to one fixture per matchweek from the Nations League or qualifiers.
CAA Eleven had initially kicked off a sales process that included rights from 2022-23 to 2027-28.