Italy

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. 

US hedge fund Elliott Management recently held talks with Mediapro about supporting the Spanish agency’s investment in media rights for Serie A, the top division of football in Italy, according to the Bloomberg news agency.

The Mediapro agency has confirmed it has appealed a court ruling which cancels its tender for rights to Serie A, the top division of Italian football, stating that the Sky Italia-led action stems from “fear” from the pay-television broadcaster of losing its dominant position in the market.

Pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has said it is ready to make an “important offer” to resolve the dispute surrounding Mediapro’s rights for Serie A after a judge today (Wednesday) ruled that the agency’s tender for the top division of Italian football must be scrapped.

State broadcaster Rai has retained domestic rights to the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana club football competitions, with Lega Serie A gaining a 60 per cent uplift in the value of the contract.

Geopolitics, as much as commerce, is likely to determine whether the value of Coppa Italia international rights continues to increase dramatically.

The Mediapro agency has warned that it will be unable to provide Lega Serie A, the organising body of the top division of Italian club football, with the full financial guarantees for its rights deal with the body amid the current deadlock in the tender process, adding that this situation would change if the Lega elected to form its own channel to exploit the content.

Sky, one of Europe’s leading pay-television sports broadcasters, has agreed to sell its 20-per-cent stake in the online betting and gaming business, Sky Betting & Gaming, to the Stars Group, a Canadian company that specialises in online gaming.

Lega Serie A has launched a media rights-sales process covering the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana club football competitions in Italy.

Lega Serie B, the governing body of the second tier of Italian football, has launched a tender process for the sale of its next set of broadcast rights.

Pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has succeeded in suspending the tender launched by the Mediapro agency for rights to Serie A, the top division of Italian club football.

The Mediapro agency has put on the market seven packages of rights to Serie A, the top division of football in Italy.

Italian state broadcaster Rai has extended an agreement for rights to the International Motorcycling Federation’s (FIM) Motocross World Championship (MXGP).

Spanish agency Mediapro has formally sealed its contract for the domestic rights to Serie A, the top division of Italian club football, through a payment of around €64m ($78.9m), a move that is set to commence talks with broadcasters over carriage of matches from the league.

Italy’s antitrust authority, the AGCM, has approved a deal to award Spanish agency Mediapro the domestic rights for Lega Serie A, the country’s top football division.

Italian Minister for Sport Luca Lotti has unveiled a new distribution model for rights income generated by Lega Serie A, the top division of football in the country.