Pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has regained rights in France to the Coppa Italia club football knockout competition after a four-year hiatus.
The broadcaster begins its coverage this week, at the semi-final stage of the competition, with the match between Lazio and AC Milan on Tuesday.
The contract runs until the end of the 2018-19 season, so it will only cover the two semi finals and the final. BeIN has also acquired broadcast rights to the same matches in Australia and New Zealand.
BeIN last held the rights to broadcast Coppa Italia games in France from 2012 to 2015. It currently also holds rights in France to Italy’s Serie A until 2021.
Rights-holder Lega Serie A had envisaged a bundling of the Coppa Italia and SuperCoppa Italiana in its unsuccessful tender process for exclusive French rights held last year.
But the SuperCoppa Italiana has already taken place this season, so it is not included in the beIN deal.
Lega Serie A, which represents the top Italian football clubs, had stipulated in its previous tender that the term duration for coverage of the two cups would be 2018 to 2021.
The Coppa Italia and SuperCoppa Italiana have been without a linear broadcaster in France since the end of Eurosport’s tenure last year. Lega Serie A has been forced to show this season’s games on its OTT YouTube channel in the meantime.
Lega Serie A took on direct responsibility last year for selling international rights to both competitions after previously using the B4 Capital agency as a distributor.